Over Population And Effects On Environment Environmental Sciences Essay

Over population is defined as the condition in which the population density increases to a limit that hassle the environment impairment, diminution of natural resources, deterioration in quality of life, and population crash. The problem of unrestrained population growth found to be one of the most major issues of recent time as it affects the welfare and happiness of all the world population. It demands the focus of every country and society, this problem is more crucial for developing nation than that of developed countries.

Every country is dedicated to gain a good standard of living so that the people staying there should get adequate food, shelter, education, employment and health facilities. This dedication has become a main objective for many developing countries that are in poverty, but the current rate of population growth has become a hurdle for the developing nation to reach their objective. The current global population is going to double in 35 years .It is projected that the population of the world in the year 2054 would be 9 billion, which is going to affect the increasing rate of economic development, which will enforce a heavy burden on effort made to enhance human welfare (JohnSeitz2002).

In developed country the population is likely remains steady at1.2billion. The current birth rate is 14 to 20% for 1000 population per year and the death rate has declined this is because of good infrastructure, wider market, high productivity of crops, modern medicine and development of sanitation facilities. While the population is going increase in developing country. The growth is expected in five developing countries like China, India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Indonesia. It is projected that by 2050 the population of India is going to increase by1.5 billion which will be more than china’s population.

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World’s population and distribution

The population of the world has been started increasing in eighteenth century, the population in 1800 was 900 million, in 1900 the population was 1600million, in year 2000 the population was 7600 million. Over 56.7% of the world population live in less developed countries, like Asia and Africa. The GNP that is per capita Gross National Product of these countries was 8.5% which is the average of world GNP and produce only 4.9% of worlds total GNP. On the other side the average per capita GNP for the developed countries is 80% of worlds GNP, contained 15.2% of world’s population. Most of them developed nation like North America, Europe, Australia, North America and some Middle East and Asian countries have High standard of living. Thus a gross inequality exists between the responsibility for supporting the world population in sustainable manner and the available resource between two groups of countries.

Over 45 percent of the world countries is experiencing high population growth rate. Most of them are less developed countries are western Asia and Africa. It is expected that in next 32 years the population is going to double by present growth rate of 2.2%. The population of India in 1994 was 913.6 million, Brazil 159.1 million, Indonesia 189.9 million, this countries are experiencing growth between 1.5 to 2.1% per year. If this countries make effort in reducing their population will prove helpful in reducing the world population in coming years. In next 47 years the population will be double by the present growth rate of 1.5%.

First, the per capita GNP is higher for the countries those who have high population growth than that of moderate population growth. It is not necessary that a high income may lead to low population growth. Second, environmental resource, income level and growth rate differ between countries. Where population growth rate is very low the people themselves may regarded as an important resource. In short sustaining development is adversely affected by high population growth. The population of the world is not equally distributed. America and Canada have 250 million of population; Soviet Union and South America both this countries have same population. the population of china , Korea and Japan is more than 1billion .India ,Pakistan ,Bangladesh is densely populated region with population of 1.5 billion.

Population Density

Population density is defined as the number of human being in per square miles. Population density gives over all view of the effect of population on natural resource with in the country. The impact of environmental damage on the economy of the country cannot be accurately forecast by the population density. Some populated countries whose population density is more, have high standard of living. The countries such as Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, where population density of this country is 1000person/sq mile. Some developed countries like UK, Australia and European countries have stable population with sustainable economy. As this country cultivate and export their crop. But countries like Brazil and Africa who are in developing stage with unstable population and have acute shortage of food, so import food from other countries. The difference in economy is generated due to diversity among the countries. The nation whose population is stable enjoys sustainable economy with high standard of living and the nation whose population is unstable and growing suffers from unsustainable economy, which leads to problem like starvation, poverty, disease.

Impact of population pressure on Environment that is food and natural resource

The population of the world is increasing day by day which indirectly effects the environment. Population is the key factor which affects the environment. The total population of the earth is 6billion which is more than the carrying capacity of the earth. Also population is increasing by the rate of 1.3% per year. As it is said above that the population of the developed country is stable but the population of underdeveloped country is increasing. So developing countries like India, China, Brazil, Africa have high illiteracy and most of the people live below poverty line .This is due to over increase in population, such vast population result in tremendous demand for shelter, food, water and sanitation facilities. This indirectly effects the natural environment and resource.

Food: – In developing countries like India, agriculture is their main occupation .more people in rural area are dependent on agriculture as their primary source of income. The population of developing countries is gradually increasing, but demand for the cultivation of crop is not increasing in the same way, which is due to scarcity of land and infertile soil. It is well known that agricultural increases arithmetically where as population increases geometrically. In many area the carrying capacity of agricultural land have already reached saturation, which is due to infertile soil, soil erosion over use of pesticides and fertilizers.

Water: – Another important issue in developing nation is scarcity of water. Extensive use of water for cultivation for many years has reduced the ground water level resulted in food scarcity. Other reason for water scarcity is irregular rain fall in these nations, which puts an additional pressure on water reservoirs. The available surface and ground water is very less to fulfill the growing demand of the population.

Soil:- Tremendous increase in population and over use of land for agricultural purpose, road construction, reckless deforestation, fodder collection lead to continuous deterioration of soil. Due to scarcity of land many people are shifting towards the forest land, so more and more forest are cutting down for building houses and settle farm land .The remain of the trees are burnt and use as fertilizer or cattle grazing result of this the essential nutrients are washed out of the soil, which lead to soil erosion. In humid and tropic region about 80% of soil is infertile and acidic. When deforestation rises, the soil become more infertile. Due to high temperature in equatorial region the soil becomes dry which develops cracks in it, because of that the essential nutrients of the soil are lost, results into reducing fertility of soil.

Forest: – Over increase in population in developing countries resulted in terrible pressure on forest resource. As people are more dependent on forest for to fulfill their basic needs such as wood, land etc which led to deforestation. The extension of valuable species and plant are the major effect of deforestation. Deforestation can lead to many serious problems like erosion of soil, land become infertile, as a result the soil becomes hard and the essentials nutrients are absorbed. Studies say that deforestation can also led to climate change, which means hot climate and less rainfall. Poor people cut down forest for settlement and for farming, the trees are then burned which releases co2 as well as other gases which effects the environment.

Fuel: – Population explosion also has tremendous effect on nonrenewable resource like natural gas, petroleum product, coal etc and also mineral resource like gold, silver, copper, lead and iron etc. More and more this kind of fuel is used for industrial and domestic purpose which leads to pollution.

According to me now people are thinking about the consequences and effect of over population, awareness has been created among the people in the urban area of developing nations. Government strategy towards controlling the population explosion has changed. In various nations around the world remarkable reduction in birth rate is taking place which will help to reduce population. Government should create awareness among the people regarding the benefits of family planning by conducting seminar and road shows in rural areas. A change in tax law should be done which encourages people to have not more than two children per couple. This will help them to give better education and prospect for their future. Government should also run different program for controlling population and they should also open family planning center which will provide people information about marriage counseling, sex education and child counseling (help to keep spacing after first child) apart from this banners, hoardings, electronic media and printed articles in news paper also helps to reduce birth rate. In developed countries, government is providing more benefits to the family having one or two children like free education, cloths, free medical and one time also meal to the children.

The main effect on environment is increasing in deforestation to reduce this more no of building is created rather than individuals houses. Agricultural land should not be destroyed for this urbanization. More amounts of industry and factories should be built in towns which will create employment opportunities. This will help in moving people from major cities to towns in order to reduce the density of population. In urban areas government should provide benefits to the people using electric cars, this will reduce the air pollution caused by internal combustion engines.

The chemical waste from industries is released into lakes and rivers which pollute them. This chemical waste contains toxic substances and poisonous gases which affects the health of human beings. These effects can be reduced by stopping release of toxic substance into the water. This water retreated in the plant and used for domestic purpose which will reduce the water shortage.

For both the developed and the under developed countries, it’s important to see the environment as well as the economic growth. The developed and underdeveloped countries should create a balance between the economic growth and protection of environment. So that they can protect the land, air, and water on which the entire life depend.