Population Explosion

Human population is the density of human beings in a particular area of a certain period of time. Before 1 AD, the human population had been small and steady for two million years. But starting from the 19^th century it’s growth speed up dramatically. It has grown from 1 billion to 6 billion. If the human population continues to grow without restrictions, it might exceed the carrying capacity of the Earth. Natural resources will be exhausted and many disasters will occur and a large amount of people will die and suffer. Population explosion is said to occur.

One of the major problems of population explosion is the world food problem. As the resources of the Earth is limited, if the human population continues to grow then more resources are needed. In many ways the natural resources are being utilize more frequently resulting the unbalance of food distribution, which the developed countries get most of the resources but the developing countries can only a get a small portion of it. This causes the food problem. For example many farmers in many developing countries grow cash crops such as tobacco and coffee in order to earn more money, less food crops can be produced. Also, many pastures in the world are being overgrazed, which the rate of vegetation consumption is much faster than the rate of their growth. Resulting the lost of much fertile topsoil, because no vegetations are available to provide the soil with nutrients. This decreases the land available for the production of food. Deforestation also decreases the amount of fertile soil. As trees are cut down for timber, there are no roots to hold the soil and to retain water so soil erosion will occur and the fertile topsoil will be lost, therefore less land for food production. Furthermore, as the human population increases, there will be more human activities on the environment and the chance of natural disasters such as drought, floods and pests will increase. All the natural disasters will destroy crops and the environment, thus slowing down food production. There are also other damages to the environment by human as well, such as warfare will destroy many land and disturbs the production of food. Also, as more resources are available to people in developed countries, they have developed wasteful eating habits. All the above will cause the unbalance of food distribution and the decrease in food production. If the population continues to grow these problems will get worse and the food problem will become more serious. Without enough food human cannot obtain the right amount and types of nutrients. The growth and health of human will be affected.

The increase of human population also affects the environment. As there will be more people then more resources and needed and there will me increase of human activities on the environment and more resources will be used up. The technology development will also increase and the rate of resource utilization will then increase. All the activities done by human on the environment for resources will cause impacts on the environment. Such as pollution will be continuously produced. Air pollution by burning of fossil fuels, extensive use of inorganic fertilizers and industrial chemicals and release of large amount of organic and inorganic wastes into the air, all of these produce harmful substances that induce unwanted changes in the atmosphere. Water pollution of sewage by factories and sewage treatment plants and the runoff of sediment of fertilizers into underground water from farmland, all these adds undesirable materials into aquatic bodies and may cause physical, chemical or biological changes in water leading to harmful effects on organisms or making it unsuitable for use.

Social problems will also arise when the human population is overpopulated. As there are more people in a confined area, there will be shortage of a lot of services such as education, housing, health care and social services. So people need to fight for all these services. They also need to fight for job opportunities, as there are more people wanting to find a job. More crimes may also arise, as there are more people fighting for the limited resources, there will be more conflicts among people and therefore more crime will occur. Also, parents need to taker care of more children and they may have financial problems and may have less time for their children. Many family problems may arise affecting the growth and development of the children.

Population explosion brings about many undesirable effects affecting human and their environment. In order to maintain the well being of the human population, we must take measures to solve the problem of population explosion. We must start from education and take actions on birth control. We can also solve the food problem by several ways and can control resource exploitation.