...Using material from item A and elsewhere, assess the view that overconsumption is now more of a threat than overpopulation to world development The sociological study of population is called ‘demography’, sociologists believe that it is important to study demographic trends such as those associated with birth and fertility etc. such trends can produce insights into why societies experience social change, for example, overconsumption and what demographic changes have brought about this change. Sociologist Paul Ehrlich studied the figures for birth rates and death rates of developing countries and compared them with food production and malnutrition rates, he concludes that the birth rate ‘must be brought into balance with the death rate or mankind will breed itself into oblivion’. As item A states ‘the developed world consumes 5/6 of the world’s resources and each person in the developed world consumes around 20 times as much as a person in the developing world’, to understand the causes of such figures claimed in item A and the predictions made by Ehrlich, we must look at the demographic causes linked to both population and overconsumption. This essay will assess whether or not overconsumption has in fact become more of a problem than overpopulation to the world’s development and what such sociological views and perspectives support this view, focusing particularly in dependency, modernization and Malthusian views. Firstly we look at the Malthusian view of population growth...
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...There are many environment problems, such as pollution, untreated sewage, and overpopulation. Although all of these issues have an impact on our society, overpopulation stands to have the greatest impact on our environment. Overpopulation is excessive human population in an area to the point of overcrowding, depletion of natural resources and environmental deterioration. The three most negative impacts overpopulation on the environment are water pollution and overconsumption One of the major sources of water pollution is organic pollution, which is becoming more and more pressing on the environment because of the growing population of the world. It's a simple concept, the more people there are in one area, the more waste they will produce. For example, in a city there are so many people that the sewage plants and the environment can't take care of all of the waste and function in its usual manner. The sewage plants do their best, but the secondary discharge that gets into the water supply causes great problems. The excess waste acts as a food source for algae and the growth rate is uncontrollable. Everyone has been in a lake where there is a lot of dead algae on the shore and the water is clouded with algae. This situation is known as eutrophication, where algae growth is out of control and the water becomes oxygen depleted. There are natural cycles of eutrophication in the spring and fall, but the body of water can deal with those amounts. When excess waste is added to the...
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...poverty and high fertility rates. As the poverty rates fell, so did birth rates (Central Intelligence Agency, 2016), reflecting poverty as a major cause for overpopulation. This leads to issues regarding resource scarcity like overcrowding, food scarcity, and water scarcity. CAUSE Poverty leads to overpopulation as residents in these areas see their children as an...
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...10/15/12 Eng 201H Overpopulation Since the year of 2011, the world population climbs up the ladder to seven billion people. According to a survey given out by SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, overpopulation is the world’s top environmental issue, followed by climate change (Science Daily). Overpopulation started through the third world countries, where most people are not being educated or given the option of contraceptives due to cultural reasons. With the rate of the human population growing, the risks of human going through starvation and illnesses due to environmental issues increase every day. Environmental risks due to the depletion of forests, fresh water, fossil fuels, and land that all consumed by humans. Overpopulation might not seem as a serious issue to people that disagrees about human overpopulating the Earth has causes major damage and tragedy around the world, but because of overpopulation, we are a step closer to turmoil. Traditionally, human population increases because people are eager to pass on genes and or last names to the next generations; especially those people that in countries that in extremely poor conditions follows those traditions. Mary Ellen Harte, a journalist from the Los Angeles Times mentions about how females are “culturally conditioned daily to welcome the idea of having children – plural, not one or none” (Harte). Many women whether being under cultural influence or not, lack the idea on how to support those children...
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...Space Exploration Space exploration has been a hot topic in the last couple of years on whether the government should fund space programs. Funding space programs for new research is a great idea because it could help us solve many problems on earth such as overpopulation and medicine. Overpopulation may be reduced by space exploration. The population of earth is growing like never before, overpopulation causes many problems like air quality. The world population increased from 3 billion in 1959 to 6 billion by 1999, a doubling that occurred over 40 years. The Census Bureau's latest projections imply that population growth will continue into the 21st century, although more slowly. The world population is projected to grow from 6 billion in 1999 to 9 billion by 2044, an increase of 50 percent that is expected to require 45 years (1). Space exploration can reduce the number of people living on earth by placing them on another planet that could have the same exact environment as earth. If we invest in these space programs they might actually find a planet that is close to the environment of earth. NASA has found planets in the recent years close to size and the atmosphere of earth but they claimed all of them are not livable (2). This indicates that we are closer to the grand prize which is finding a planet that we can live on, if these indications are true we might actually find a planet that people can live on and survive. We are getting closer and closer to finding a sister...
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...ontent Page * Aging Population * Overpopulation * Mindmap Aging Population Article : http://www.cnbc.com/id/46010334/page/11 1. Monaco Old/young ratio: 2.18:1 65 years & over: 26.9% 0-14 years: 2.18% Monaco, one of the world’s most densely populated countries, is home to the oldest population. It leads eight other European countries in the top 10 list. But the country is also a bit of a statistical anomaly because its status as a tax haven makes it a big draw for the wealthy and the retired rich. With an estimated population of 30,539, the country saw its population decline in 2011 by 0.12 percent, according the to CIA Factbook. Only around 8,000 people are citizens of the city-state. The proportion of Monaco’s population aged 65 and over is 26.9 percent, the highest in Western Europe, where the average is 16.5 percent, according to a 2011 study by research firm Euromonitor. The median age of Monaco’s population is 49.4 years, according to the CIA Factbook. With its older demographic, Monaco spent just 1.2 percent of its GDP in 2009 on education, according to the World Bank. In an effort to attract young professionals and entrepreneurs to boost its economy, Prince Albert launched a new consular service in Britain to attract foreigners in 2007. Overpopulation ARTICLE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alon-tal/overpopulation-is-still-t_b_3990646.html Country: China Overpopulation remains the leading driver of hunger, desertification...
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...Global Context of Business Overpopulation & Overconsumption As a species, we tend not to talk too much about population growth, but we all know it is there. Modern man first showed up on earth over 50,000 years ago, and by 1850 we had reproduced to such amount that we reached the 1 Billion people mark. The next billion took only 100 years, compared to over 50 thousand years for the first one. In 2011 world population reached 7 billion. According to the Population Institute, which focuses on raising awareness about overpopulation, we add around 220,000 people per day, which amounts to around 80 million people per year, or 1 billion every 12 years. Currently, for every two people who die, four more are born. Many experts argue that population growth will cap at around 10-11 billion by the end of the century, and therefore we shouldn’t concern ourselves too much with this issue. This may very well be true, however, 11 billion people leading the lifestyle of a middle class citizen in a developed country is nowhere near sustainable, and this is certainly a big cause for concern. Therefore, as humans we need to define what is the underlying problem and how do we tackle future challenges. There are plenty of arguments for and against overpopulation. Many argue that population controls have to be applied in order to stop grown, such as China’s one child policy. Others say that population growth is unstoppable and therefore we have to focus more on how we deal with it rather...
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...industrialization of China, and the problems that tag along such an aggressive industrial program in a short period. China once had over a billion poor people, but now it has the world’s fastest growing economy. China’s economy has been growing at an amazing rate of 8% per year for more than 20 years. While the economy is growing, the need for energy is growing at a faster rate. The documentary mentions that China could match the carbon emissions of the US projected by 2030. China’s energy is mainly supplied by coal, and 7 of the world’s 10 most polluted cities come from China. The major problems are due to overpopulation and present economic thinking, and also globalization. As documented in the film, The United States has set the benchmark for high living, high energy use. The US is one of the most consumptive countries in the world and China has really taken western consumerism as its model. Since the capitalist economic reform in China in the 1980s, the Chinese economy has been rising significantly, and the typical income has multiplied by 4 in the past 2 decade. People are leaving their traditions and their villages and farm lands to move to the city. As more and more shopping malls are build all over the country, and as a result energy consumption has risen drastically. China burned 25% more coal than the US in 2001. China’s economy grew incredibly quickly and with no concurrent development in environmental policy. The biggest problem is the lack of clean air. 70% of China’s...
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...a particular geographical area, and have the capability of interbreeding. Overpopulation: Overpopulation is a function of the number of individuals compared to the relevant resources, such as the water and essential nutrients they need to survive. It can result from an increase in births, a decline in mortality rates, an increase in immigration, or an unsustainable biome and depletion of resources. Causes of Overpopulation: Decline in death rate: Root of overpopulation is the difference between the overall birth rate and death rate in populations. If the number of children born each year equals the number of adults that die, then the population will stabilize. Population increases due to increases of birth rate for long period of time then death rate. Improvement of agriculture provides nutrition without hunting. Better Medical facilities: Better medical facility is another reason of overpopulation. Science invents different vaccines and treatments for life threatening diseases. Due to this this death rate decreases. Rise in Illiteracy rate: Uneducated people do not know about the harmful effects of overpopulation. They give birth to large number of child and do not provide them the basic needs of life. Technological Advancement in Fertility Treatment: Advancement of technological facilities also play important role in overpopulation. Medical sciences discoveries provide different methods for child birth to those...
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...World Overpopulation Have your ever just wondered what would happen to the world if tomorrow we would just run out of oil or any other natural resource? Life would be a lot more difficult, and we would have to adapt to world changes and change how we live immediately. Technology would have to greatly step up and come a long way to find out a way to sustain life without having the use of the natural resource we no longer have. Even though this may not happen we still need to consider the fact that it could happen any day and that we need to start enforcing population control. Population control is something that we would be able to control on our own, but in order to make sure everyone follows it we need to take it to a higher level. We would have to get our local senators to bring it up to our Representatives until it is finally made a bill and lands on the president’s desk and becomes a law. The purpose of this law would help ensure what natural resources that we have left could last longer than the rate we are using them. We could also reduce the cost of living because there would not be as high of a demand for items. Over population is a growing problem in poorer countries and making its way towards all other countries. Over population of the United States could help be eliminated with enforcing one child family laws. Population growth is a continuing problem that seems to go unnoticed in many developed countries. A reporter from the Daily Mail UK wrote that each year...
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...N O T O R E P R O D U C T I V E H E A L T H B I L L ! With the population of the country growing fast—three births following only one death of an individual—the government has been frantic about what to do as a response. Overpopulation has been one of the reasons why Philippines has been on twelfth of the most populated countries in the world and maybe even why our country tops the list of the poorest countries in the world. In response to it, some members of the government last July of the year 2010 proposed House Bill No. 96 otherwise known as the Reproductive Health Bill. What are the contents of this bill that it has been the source of debates until today? Why does the church and some activists earnestly disagree with it if will help lessen the growing population of the country? What is the Reproductive Health Bill or RH Bill? The RH Bill is a bill that allows the usage of mechanical and chemical barriers such as pills, condoms and IUDs (intrauterine devices). Moreover, this bill strictly states that sex education should be taught to students starting from the third grade. Thus, it requires and allows every doctor to give barriers and perform medical processes. Any doctor who will refuse to do such acts will be charged fifty thousand pesos. In accordance to the Family Planning Survey in 2006, 2.6 million Filipinas would like to plan their families but they lack information and access to do so. 44% of the pregnancies in the poorest quintile are unwanted and...
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...Negative Effects of Overpopulation Depletion of Natural Resources The effects of overpopulation are quite severe. The first of these is the depletion of resources. The Earth can only produce a limited amount of water and food, which is falling short of the current needs. Most of the environmental damage being seen in the last fifty odd years is because of the growing number of people on the planet. They are cutting down forests, hunting wildlife in a reckless manner, causing pollution and creating a host of problems. Those engaged in talking about overpopulation have noticed that acts of violence and aggression outside of a war zone have increased tremendously while competing for resources. Degradation of Environment: With the overuse of coal, oil and natural gas, it has started producing some serious effects on our environment. Rise in the number of vehicles and industries have badly affected the quality of air. Rise in amount of CO2 emissions leads to global warming. Melting of polar ice caps, changing climate patterns, rise in sea level are few of the consequences that we might we have to face due to environment pollution. Conflicts and Wars Overpopulation in developing countries puts a major strain on the resources it should be utilizing for development. Conflicts over water are becoming a source of tension between countries, which could result in wars. It causes more diseases to spread and makes them harder to control. Starvation is a huge issue facing the world...
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...Overconsumption and Overpopulation and their effect on the Environment The effect of overpopulation and over consumption on the environment has had a massive negative effect. Overpopulation is an undesirable condition where the number of existing human population exceeds the carrying capacity of Earth. We are now adding one billion people to the planet every 12 years. That's about 220,000 per day. (Howmany?.org) This makes overpopulation a big threat to our environment but the bigger issue is that we are not using our resources efficiently to solve the problem. The problem includes shortages of all our resources, war and social conflict, limits on personal freedom, overcrowding in large cities and the health and survival of other species. In the last fifty years, there have been a vast number of people and organizations rising up and speaking against this problem, searching for a solution to this detrimental issue. Howmany?.org is just one of many organizations that are empowering people to find the best population size for Earth. They do this through outreach and advocacy programs that are created to add population into conversations and get people thinking. While overpopulation is not the only cause of environmental problems, it is a root cause that people should be aware of. Growth in population, affluence, and technology are jointly responsible for environmental problems concerning overconsumption. We use technology to produce and gather most of our resources. ...
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...happening all around the world and it is not decreasing. What will happen if this continues rapidly? What will others do? Some questions like these cannot be answered, but there are still ways to prevent overpopulation from becoming the future. Only if everybody works together to change the world for the better. This conflict goes farther back than most will assume. Most started with very little, and maintained their population until others expanded around the world. Once the nations entered the Industrial Revolution it increased by 25%, which started in the 1800’s as others started immigrating to different countries for more possibilities. After World War 2 population increased rapidly each year by a billion in a shorter time period. “Human population entered the 20th century with 1.6 billion people and left the century with 6.1 billion”(World Population Distribution 2). This data shows how fast a change that is significant to lives can happen. As the years go by population growth grows and it is not slowing down. This is a problem the world is facing that is almost impossible to stop if others do not work together. The countries that are most popular...
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...Expert Views on Increasing Population World’s population growth is close to seven billion, the rapid growth is raising concerns with many experts. Experts today are arguing their views on the issue of population growth. While both Alon Tal the author of “Overpopulation Is Still the Problem” and Robert Walker the writer of “Overpopulation Is Not the Problem? Really?” state that population growth is a problem, the author of “The overpopulation myth” Fred Pearce and the author of “Overpopulation Isn’t The Problem: It’s Too Few Babies” Joel Kotkin disagree. This paper will examine the work of these four writers to analyze their perspective whether population growth has negative or positive consequences. Lack of food, reduction in living organisms, ecological and environmental problems as claimed by Tal are the outcomes of population surplus. He asserts that deterioration of China’s natural capital was part cause of China’s food crisis during 1958 and 1961 that resulted in more than twenty million people staving; as many died due to lack of food. China’s food crisis should teach the world a lesson states Tal that the outcome of taking no notice to the lack of natural resources and growing population is severe. He agrees that China’s one-child policy was not popular with the china’s people, however, it prevented many deaths caused by starvation. Tal goes on to explains that in the developing regions of the world one in eight people suffer from continues undernourishment...
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