Introduction: Population Growth is becoming a huge issue in our country and the world today. And the population of the world is rising steadily year on year. In this 21st century, the World is facing a major problem of overpopulation which has become equivalent to global crisis now. The birth rate is consistently increasing resulting in a drain of resources as there is an increase in demand. As our population grows, the needs of the population become bigger. The very large population becomes a problem when there isn’t enough space to live and not enough food and supplies to live off of. This issue is as serious as some other global issue, but for any problem, there is a solution.
Over Population Problem: The world’s population will soon reach a level where there will not be enough resources to sustain life as we know it. Growth must be checked to avoid this catastrophe. Many environmental, social, and economic problems either stem from or are increased in magnitude by the overpopulation problem. With an exponentially increasing population, the problems created by overpopulation grow correspondingly. To ensure population stability not only in the increasingly wealthy third-world areas but also in the industrialized areas, countries and individuals must work together to achieve zero population growth. This exponential population growth that our planet has experienced over the last 150 years has had some severe negative effects. The most obvious and common impact is that overpopulation has put a great strain on the natural resources of the earth.
As we know, some of the resources available to us come in limited quantities, for example, fossil fuels. When the population explosion happened, these resources are becoming rarer and will one day run out completely. The earth does not contain enough resources to indefinitely sustain the current enormous population growth. For instance, there is a limited area of arable land and living space. In many areas, there is simply not enough food to feed the growing populations. Each day 40,000 children die from malnutrition and its related diseases. 150 million children in the world suffer from poor health due to food shortages.
In addition to depleting resources, overpopulation increases environmental problems. Pollution is an environmental problem whose magnitude is increased by overpopulation. As more people drive more cars, use more electricity, throw away more trash, and cut down more trees, the environmental problems we experience are greatly increased.
Causes, Effects, and Solutions: Overpopulation means an increase in the number of people in an area than the number, the resources of that particular area can sustain. Many causes are behind this problem some are:
Causes of Population Growth –
The growth rate of the population is higher in developing countries. The reason for this increase is mainly due to a lack of knowledge of family planning. Mostly people who are contributing for population growth are illiterate and living below of poverty line. They are also getting their child marrying at an early age without understanding its implication.
Mostly people come from rural areas to urban areas/cities for job opportunities or employment and improvement in lifestyle. It creates an imbalance in the city and a shortage of resources.
Improvement in medical technology/treatment reduces the mortality rate for many serious diseases. A lot of chronic diseases or deadly viruses such as measles, smallpox are being treated with the improvement in medical services.
With the improvement in medical science, it has become possible for a couple who are unable to conceive, to undergo fertility treatment methods, and have their own babies. Moreover, due to awareness, people go to the hospital for routine checkups and delivery, which are safer for the mother and baby.
Effects of Population Growth –
As population increases, the consumption of basic needs such as food and water will also increase. However, Earth can produce a limited amount of water and food, which is lesser in comparison to consumption, leading to an increase in prices.
Forests are depleting to cater to the growth of urbanization that is affecting animals in the forest, causing pollution and imbalance in ecology. Natural resources are depleting very fast due to the overuse of coal, oil, and natural gas, etc. It is creating serious effects on our environment.
With the increase in population, the number of vehicles and industries has increased significantly; badly affecting the quality of air. Rise in the amount of release of greenhouse gases causing global warming, which causes the melting of ice from iceberg and glaciers. Changing climate patterns, rise in sea level are a few of the consequences that we might have to face due to environmental pollution.
Overpopulation has increased the acts of violence and aggression as people are competing with each other for getting resources and achieving a good lifestyle.
Solutions to Protect Population Growth –
Developed countries are not facing the problem of overpopulation as people in develop countries are educated and they are aware of the consequences of having more kids. While in developing countries, people are not well educated and have no proper idea about family planning. If education improves then they will understand the disadvantage of having more than one or two children.
In slum, areas government has continuously provided some awareness programs to make understand families about the hard life they will have to face with four or five or more children. They also guide them about family planning and efficient birth control.
Government should impose some restrictions / hard method to control the number of children per couple. Government should also provide some incentives or tax exemption to curb overpopulation.
Conclusion: To live a better life every family needs to have proper family planning in a manner to provide their kids with complete nutritious food, proper shelter, the best education, and other important resources. A country can only get success when its citizens are healthy and live a happy and content life. Thus controlled population is the key to the success for every Country in the World.
