Sustainability

The term sustainability, in ecology, is used to describe how ecosystems stay productive as well as diverse over time. There are many problems that can threaten the earth’s sustainability, but one stands above the rest in the long run, overpopulation. Overpopulation by definition is excessive population of an area to the point of overcrowding, depletion of natural resources, or environmental deterioration. There are many reasons for the rapid growth in population within the last 500 years such as better hygiene, mass food production, medicine, and technology in general. If the earth does in fact become overpopulated eventually, then there will be a detrimental series of problems that will plague the earth. One of those problems will be the scarcity of resources, because of the population size nearly all of the arable land on earth will be turned into some form of urban complex thus leaving no room for farmlands. When there is no room for farmlands that means that agricultural production will have dwindled to nearly nothing. Also with a over capacitated Earth will be more health problems across the board, with a large population the inhabitants of earth will be densely populated meaning that contagious disease will spread much quicker, harming more people than ever before. In the past 50 years there have been some major changes in the world in attempt to control the population. In 1970 the United States enacted Title X of the Public Health Service Act, this act provides access to contraceptive services, supplies, and information to those who seek it. Also in 1978 China introduced its One-child policy, this policy highly discourages having more than one child. Chinese officials claim that since the policy's enactment over 250 million births have been prevented. Even though overpopulation is not a global problem at the moment, we need to start thinking of plans for the future.



Parker








http://www.buzzle.com/articles/overpopulation-problems.html

http://overpopulation.org/