Overpopulation Sources for your Essay

Causes of Overpopulation in Developing Countries


"Even our present population growth was brought on by technology which prevented or cured disease and allowed large gains in food productivity (often by increased use of fertilizers and pesticides, and cruel treatment of farm animals)." (Hanauer) Humans have removed themselves from the natural cycle of life, placing themselves at the top of the food chain and having no natural predators whatsoever

Overpopulation Philos Identity Freedom Overpopulation Is a


Individuals make choices of fertility and health care based on their own personal desires and belief in the rights of the individual to make such paramount decisions. There is also a good deal of evidence that individuals seek to assign "other" evolving solutions to the problem, with no real definitive answer that these "solutions" will be enough to save the world from catastrophic overpopulation and limited equity issues (Arsenault, October 2011)

Overpopulation Philos Identity Freedom Overpopulation Is a


The current population of almost seven billion is forecast to rise to more than nine billion by 2050. This is increasing demands on the finite resources of our planet, reducing our ability to bring people out of poverty and causing climate-warming increases in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, a decline in biodiversity and conflict for resources (John, 2011, p

Overpopulation Philos Identity Freedom Overpopulation Is a


18) Yet, from a philosophical standpoint associated with identity and freedom there is no doubt that the problem with overpopulation is not being addressed on an individual level as each individual believes in his or her innate right to have children (chapter 10 in Chaffee). There is a clear sense even from the experts that debates about the statistics are pervasive and definitions are lacking, leaving the scientific community to offer individuals limited concretes and many conjectures (Nicholas, May 2011), which are often easily shot down by civil laws' reluctance to intervene on an issue that is so enduringly associated with identity and freedom (John, 2011)

Overpopulation and Its Environmental Effects


The report states, among others, that half of the world's wetlands were lost last century and the world's forests have been reduced by as much as half by activates such as logging. (People and Ecosystems, the Fraying Web of Life) Other findings of the report are even more alarming

Overpopulation Overpopulation and the Food


Researcher Grace Carswell writes of the Kigezi district of Uganda, "However, while there is clear evidence that the population of the district has grown consistently, none of the envisaged environmental disasters has struck. Predictions of major environmental catastrophe, food deficit and the unsustainability of the agricultural system have not manifested themselves" (Carswell)

Overpopulation Overpopulation and the Food


Can we feed the world, or can the world develop enough food sources to feed itself? These are compelling questions that must be answered to end world hunger in the 21st century, even if overpopulation continues to plague the planet. The United States is one of the world's largest food producers (Cook 5)

Overpopulation Overpopulation and the Food


Another area of food supply that is suffering from the Earth's growth in population is fishing. Another writer notes, "Since the past several decades have seen tremendous growth in the urban populations of poor countries with traditional fish diets, along with income growth in these populations,' he says, 'it is no surprise that fish consumption has exploded'" (Tibbetts)

Overpopulation Overpopulation and the Food


They implemented a one child only policy for families in the 1970s to help limit population growth, and have faced great famines throughout their history. The last ended as recently as 1961, as author Vaclav Smil notes, "The world's greatest famine,' this was an overwhelmingly man-made (Mao-made, to be exact) famine, and by the time it ended in 1961 it left behind about 30 million dead" (Smil 72)

Overpopulation and Instability: Drawing Connections


A person arguing in favor of the viewpoint that overpopulation is not a cause of political instability would likely use India's recent economic success as proof that a huge population is not necessarily indicative of political or economic strife. In examining countries like Argentina and Japan, the authors of the 1996 article entitled, "Political Instability and Economic Growth" (Alesina; Ozler; Roubini; and Swagel, 1996, pp

Overpopulation and Instability: Drawing Connections


Barro, there exists an indirect positive link between positive population growth and political stability. He argues that the countries with the highest growth rates in GDP have historically been those with the largest population growth and therefore largest pools of human labor capital (Barro, 1991, pp

Overpopulation and Instability: Drawing Connections


While the link between political instability and population growth cannot always be directly proven through case study, it is very hard to show the contrary, at least statistically. In "A Sensitivity Analysis of Cross-Country Growth Regression" (Levin, and Renelt, 1992), the authors show that there are statistical links between the population growth rate of a country and the country's political and economic stability

Overpopulation and Instability: Drawing Connections


He argues that the means of political destabilization that occurred in countries such as Burma and Vietnam was through overpopulation and lack of complex government control. The populations of these nations were allowed to grow unchecked, and in an era when centralized government was having a hard time keeping up with the large number of dissenting voices coming from the unskilled laborers, political instability resulted (Olson Jr., 1963, pp

Overpopulation and Instability: Drawing Connections


The connection between overpopulation and political instability is no clearer than in nations such as Somalia and other sub-Saharan African nations. Their unemployment and crime rates are sky high (Osborne, 2002, pp

Overpopulation and Instability: Drawing Connections


Peron's book, Exploding Population Myths (2006) argues that overpopulation is not the problem that leads to a failed state or to political instability. He feels that the state itself leads to the overpopulation problem, by means of corrupt or imperfect practices (Peron, 2006)

Overpopulation and Instability: Drawing Connections


Certainly there have been many advances in the technology that the world has to grow larger amounts of food more efficiently, but there still exist severe resource shortages in some parts of the world. The rate at which food can be grown has been shown to be non-linear, but that doesn't mean that industrialized countries around the world should turn a blind eye to the effects of overpopulation (Ratner, 2004, pp

Overpopulation and Instability: Drawing Connections


This does not mean however that overpopulation does no exacerbate the potential for political instability. Any time there is a large group of people who are unemployed or unhappy with their own condition, there will also exist political and social turmoil (Schmuck and Shultz, 2002)

Overpopulation and Instability: Drawing Connections


The argument that technological advancements will help to save the world from resource struggles and wars only goes so far. Certainly there is a critical mass or tipping point where the world population would exceed the raw resources required to sustain it (Schwartzman, 2008, pp

Overpopulation and Instability: Drawing Connections


Countries like India had to evolve economically in order to survive politically. If the population of India were to grow without sufficient educational and political structure to help guide the development of a more complex economy, the masses of unskilled workers and unemployed people would overrun the nation's political system in an effort to secure the vast amounts of capital and resources necessary to sustain the overpopulated state (Shrivastave, 1992, pp

Overpopulation and Instability: Drawing Connections


The government realized that the country's population was beginning to spiral out of control and it created many incentives for parents to have only one child. As the Chinese economy grew and began to become modernized around the 1950's and 1960's, the issue of overpopulation was brought to the foreground as the nation strained to develop technologically (Zhao, 1986, pp