Introduction
The rapid increase in the number of people in the current generation has raised significant concern among humans. Early marriages cause overpopulation, search for job opportunities, and underutilized contraceptives. Many problems arise as a result of overpopulation. These problems include; depletion of natural resources, unemployment, high cost of living and even degradation of the environment. Therefore, overpopulation can be defined as an increase in the number of people to the extent of exceeding the carrying capacity of the domain. This essay will discuss how overpopulation affects human beings and how to curb the problem.
Effects of Overpopulation
Overpopulation has led to the degradation of the environment. In developing countries, many people, especially the youth, move from rural areas to urban areas to seek job opportunities. Vegetation is cut down to create more buildings (Uniyal, Paliwal Kaphaliya & Sharma 2020). Cutting down trees and other vegetation leads the ground to bear, making it easy for soil to be carried away by agents of erosion. Population growth leads to an increase in the need to produce consumer products. In return, this causes overexploitation of environmental resources. Industrialization is also a result of rapid population growth. An increase in industries leads to both air and water pollution. Many enterprises do not follow the government policies on how to dispose of their waste products. When these waste products are released in drainage systems, they affect and even kill the aquatic life existing. It also makes the water insufficient for human consumption.
Overpopulation, on the other hand, may also cause unemployment. Since jobs are limited and there are more applicants, many people are left unemployed. It results in poverty (Bahadur, 2019). The problem of poverty affects the unemployed people and affects those employed. It is experienced when the employer has many employees and is forced to pay few wages. Unemployment has led to an increase in theft cases as people want to provide their families with basic needs.
Overpopulation has also led to the depletion of natural resources. An increase in the number of people leads to higher energy consumption for transportation, food production and other activities (Garg 2020). The exploitation of fossil fuels for energy production leads to air pollution. The smoke produced from burning fossil fuels affects human beings causing respiratory diseases when inhaled.
Solutions That Can Help Manage Overpopulation
First, the government may equip married couples with contraceptives that will help reduce unwanted pregnancies. Forced birth control should be imposed to discourage families from having many children (Hendrixson, Ojeda, Sasser, Nadimpall, Foley, & Bhatia 2020). Couples that may need more children should pay tax to be granted permission to have more children.
They are creating awareness about overpopulation. Nowadays, many people are not familiar with the adverse effects of overpopulation (Yadav 2021). By spreading awareness, each family will know the number of children they are supposed to get.
The government should also enforce laws that protect young girls forced into early marriages. Those involved in such behaviors should be arrested to reduce early pregnancies (Moran & Baloy 2020). Girls at a younger age are more sexually active, and therefore sex education among teens to control early pregnancy.
Conclusion
Overpopulation has many effects, as expressed in the essay above. The next generation may experience many problems, including environmental hazards, if the problem of overpopulation is not controlled. Families mainly get many children since they still hold onto the old tradition. Thus, the main way to control the global problem is that people should be enlightened on how overpopulation affects each nation in many ways.
References
Bahadur, R. (2019). Impact of Over-population on Economic Growth and Development in India. International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews, 6, 1-10. Retrieved from: http://ijrar.com/upload_issue/ijrar_issue_20543299.pdf
Garg, S. (2020). Impact of overpopulation on land use pattern. In Environmental and Agricultural Informatics: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications (pp. 1517- 1534). IGI Global. Retrieved from: https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/impact-of- overpopulation-on-land-use-pattern/233025
Hendrixson, A., Ojeda, D., Sasser, J. S., Nadimpally, S., Foley, E. E., & Bhatia, R. (2020). Confronting populationism: Feminist challenges to population control in an era of climate change. Gender, Place & Culture, 27(3), 307-315. Retrieved from: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0966369X.2019.1639634.
Moran, N. F., & Baloyi, K. (2020). Strategies to reduce deaths in early pregnancy. In Obstetrics and Gynaecology Forum (Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 7-10). In House Publications. Retrieved from: https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.10520/ejc-medog-v30-n4-a5
Uniyal, S., Paliwal, R., Kaphaliya, B., & Sharma, R. K. (2020). Human overpopulation: Impact on environment. In Megacities and Rapid Urbanization: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice (pp. 20-30). IGI Global. Retrieved from: https://www.igi- global.com/chapter/human-overpopulation/231295.
Yadav, S. (2021). Overpopulation in India with Special Reference to Two Child Policy. Journal of Public Policy and Administration, 5(4), 139. Retrieved from: http://article.jo2pa.org/pdf/10.11648.j.jppa.20210504.13.pdf
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