The Environmental Issue of Overpopulation - 1762 Words

The Environmental Issue of Overpopulation Jakira West June 10, 2012 The Environmental Issue of Overpopulation As time passes and our world’s population continues to grow, overpopulation is becoming a very serious issue deserving of the upmost acknowledgement and consideration. Throughout history crowding of the earth and the overuse of the world’s natural resources has hardly been a main concern. Today however, with a population of 7 billion people and counting, the diminishment of the earth’s resources has become a more serious issue than ever before. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, overpopulation occurs when a population’s density exceeds the capacity of the environment to supply the health requirements of†¦show more content†¦The president of the Population Institute, Lawrence Smith, believes that the worst possible result of overpopulation would be the diminishment of fresh, clean water (Hoevel). I completely agree with this because obviously no living organism can be so without water. Fresh water is a valuable and diminishing resource. Two percent of the earth’s water is fresh and 1.6 percent is frozen in polar ice caps and glaciers. A huge issue we will have in the near future is how the increasing population will share less than half percent of the earths usable freshwater. With that said, uranium will also become a valuable and diminishing resource because the nuclear power generated by uranium is used to run seawater desalinization plants (Mills). One of the biggest issues with the growing population rate is that it means there will be many more mouths to feed. As of right now, we do not have enough food to do that, so we will need to grow more. To grow more food, we will need to yield to arable lands and find more fresh water, and we will also need more nuclear energy (uranium). Potash will also become a valuable and diminishing resource because it is one of the macronutrients essential for plants to grow and thrive. Potash is a major source of potassium, w hich is found in every plant cell. The increase use of plant nutrients will be most effective in increasing crop yields in the face of an increasing global populationShow MoreRelatedOverpopulation Is An Environmental Issue1816 Words   |  8 Pages The question does not concern whether or not overpopulation is an environmental issue. The evidence is clear, the majority of researchers address this established issue with their own reasoning behind what the biggest cause or effect is. Overall, Hardaway (2014) found that around every one third of a second, the world creates room for one more human. 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