The phrase “overpopulation” refers to a scenario in which the world’s or region’s population is so vast that the people living there endure. In other terms, the population of a place or planet surpasses its carrying capacity, which is the maximum number of humans, other living species, or crops that can be sustained without causing environmental damage. Food scarcity, restricted access to health insurance and other government infrastructure, overpopulation, and significant unemployment may be among their problems. Overpopulation is linked to a variety of adverse economic and environmental consequences, including over-farming, deforestation, and water pollution, as well as habitat destruction and global climate change (Sernau, 2022). While many excellent measures are being taken to improve human viability on the planet, the challenge of having too many humans has made finding long-term solutions more difficult.
Overpopulation and environmental consequences are frequently intertwined and complicated. Some of the most practical yield issues linked with overcrowding are listed below. They are mentioned individually for the purpose of simplicity, but recognizing the links between them is difficult, making them more challenging to handle. Complications arise when the agricultural base expands to feed an ever-increasing global population. More food is required as the world population grows. Such efforts may be implemented through more intense cultivating or devastation in order to produce additional farmlands, both of which might have negative consequences; agriculture is responsible for deforestation and forest degradation. Agricultural runoff is a significant contributor to algal blooms, which is defined as the presence of increased nutrients in water bodies, such as vast pockets like the Gulf of Mexico’s Dead Zone. Eutrophication results in the rapid development of plant life, which absorbs oxygen and kills aquatic creatures. Industry and sewer systems are two other main drivers of eutrophication, both of which are linked to population increase.
As the usage of fossil fuels has risen to maintain industrialized nations, human population expansion and climate change have gone hand in hand. Increased people mean more demand for oil, charcoal, gasoline, and other underground energy sources that release carbon dioxide (CO2) into the environment when burnt, keeping warm air inside like a greenhouse. The developed world consumes the majority of fossil fuels. It is a frightening concept that most emerging countries aspire to industrialized societies as they progress economically, thus increasing CO2 emissions into the environment.
When working-age individuals in poor households develop ill and require treatment and care, they become impoverished because revenue is lost when the workers are unable to work, and expenses rise owing to healthcare costs. Low-income families frequently spend their resources and lose their possessions to pay for medical treatment for sick family members. When a large majority of houses have the exact requirement, assets will have to be sold, and such distressed sales are frequently ill-timed and at a loss. The pandemic is a critical element in lowering the growth of the economy at the national level on the basis of labor force losses. As a result, attempts to eliminate poverty are hampered, trapping specific populations – particularly in the poorest and least industrialized countries – in poverty and increasing their HIV/AIDS risk.
Poverty raises the risk of HIV/AIDS because it pushes jobless people into skilled migrant labor pools in pursuit of transitory and temporary jobs, where they are more likely to get the disease. Poverty also forces girls and women to trade sex for food and to rely on sex labor to make ends meet. When people are unable to work in the formal sector, and all alternative job opportunities are insufficient to meet their basic necessities (Wheeler et al., 2005). Poverty fosters a cynical attitude that presents itself as indifferent to increased sexual and other activities, and at the extremity, poverty promotes a dismissive attitude that displays itself in aversion to excessive sexual and other behaviors. Individuals are under-motivated and under-equipped to take the required steps to secure themselves from HIV under these conditions.
Cross-country data suggests strong and substantial links between HIV prevalence and measures of socioeconomic performance on the world stage. In fact, the larger the prevalence of HIV, the worse the financial growth, whether analyzed in terms of lost GDP growth or per capita GDP growth, economic disparity, or the standardized incidence ratio. There are, nevertheless, outliers to the HIV/AIDS poverty association, particularly in Africa, where some of the poorest nations also have the highest HIV prevalence rates. The contradiction, according to one theory, is caused by flaws in direction, organization, planning, and implementation, as well as a lack of institutional responsiveness.
When I passed the ecological footprint test, I got a result of 3 and a half Earth, which means that this number of planets is necessary for my daily life. My ecological footprint is the biologically productive area required to provide everything I consume. It can be compared to biocapacity, which is the productive area that exists on Earth; my ecological footprint rate is 5.7. Compared to other residents of the United States, I live without much difference. I do not have a car, so I mostly use public transport, which makes my life more environmentally friendly. Otherwise, my life is no different from the average life in the United States.
There is no similarity between the typical American household’s consumer spending and that of the typical Indian household. Many Indians have a low carbon footprint due to their way of living (Sue et al., 2016). Residents living deep within India’s coal-producing area may live on nutrient terrain, yet they remain poor. India has emphasized at the Paris agreement on climate change negotiations that it will not be able to shift to a sustainable future without the help of rich nations’ technologies.
Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere are overflowing their atmosphere as a result of human activities. These gases operate as heat trappers, acting like a blanket. As a result, a web of severe and detrimental consequences has emerged, ranging from more powerful and frequent storms to drought, sea-level rise, and mortality. Most renewable technologies, on the other hand, emit little or no risk of climate change. Even when “life cycle” pollutants of renewable energy are factored in, the greenhouse gas emissions connected with renewable energy are negligible. Depending on the commodity and whether it is responsibly produced and produced, renewable energy production through biomass can provide a wide range of global carbon dioxide emissions.
Coal and natural gas plant pollution has been related to respiratory problems, neurodegenerative disorders, heart attacks, cancer, early mortality, and a slew of other significant issues. The majority of these adverse health effects are caused by air and water pollution, which clean energy methods do not create. Wind, solar, and hydroelectric power plants create energy without emitting any pollutants into the atmosphere. Although hydrothermal and biomass systems produce some toxic emissions, their total emissions are often lower than those produced by coal and hydrocarbon power stations. Furthermore, because wind and solar energy do not require much water to function, they do not damage water resources or put pressure on supplies by conflicting with farming, tap water, or other critical water uses.
If this waste of resources continues, their world may become like the other seven planets where life is impossible. To avoid this, humans, as world citizens, must change their conduct in order to protect the planet’s distinctiveness and attractiveness. Plastic bags are frequently discarded and wind up in landfills or elsewhere in the environment. They can smother animals who get entangled in them or mistake them for food in this situation. Bring their own recyclable bag whether a person is shopping for food, clothing, or other items. In the last years, a lot of sustainable initiatives have started to combat this. Supermarkets have started discounting food that is close to its expiration date so that a person can look for these stickers or sections in the supermarket. There are also several apps trying to combat food waste from different locations, such as bakers, butchers, and restaurants. If everyone merely cycled or walked a little more in the little areas, it might have a significant influence on the environment. On the other side, most of them enjoy traveling, although flying has a significant environmental impact.
References
Sernau, S. (2022). Global problems: The search for equity, peace, and sustainability. Waveland Press.
Sue, D. W., Rasheed, M. N., & Rasheed, J. M. (2016). Multicultural social work practice: A competency-based approach to diversity and social justice. John Wiley & Sons.
Wheeler, B., Wheeler, G., & Church, W. (2005). Population. Facing the Future People and.