Overpopulation: Earth’s Destruction

Amanda Broxton Instructor Sabel Composition II Cause and Effect Essay May 28th, 2009 Overpopulation: Earth’s Destruction Can you picture it? On one side of the world, in the middle of nowhere, a potentially beautiful child is just skin and bones; on the other side, another animal that can not be replaced has gone extinct. Somewhere there is a woman washing her few belongings in a dirty, polluted river. These and many other events like them are taking place all over the world. The cause? Over popularization, on which has been the root of many problems and is caused by many others, but do not worry there might be some hope in fixing it. Due to over popularization, one of Earth’s potential destruction is caused by over-production of the land. From more and more animals going extinct that can not be replaced because there isn’t room for them to live on. Also because of this, there is not enough food and clean water for humans and animals alike. Plus, humans are not conserving resources as they should and are taking prime land to pile more and more people on. Environmentalists have long been concerned about the resources threatened by rapidly growing human populations, focusing on phenomenon such as deforestation, desertification, air pollution and global warming. But the worst-case scenario for people experiencing overpopulation, according to Lawrence Smith, president of the Population Institute, is a lack of fresh, clean water. â€Å"If the water goes, t he species goes,† he said. ’(Hoevel, 2008, para. 9). Equally important is the fact that this is all caused by us Homo sapiens looking for a better lifestyle. We now have new medicines and technologies to help us live longer by healing every little thing that might be wrong with us. Some of those things were introduced by Mother Nature to kill us off to keep everything equal. We also have higher birth rates produced by more people having healthier births and multiple births. Furthermore, these children are living through earlier childhood killing diseases with the aforementioned medicines and technologies. ‘Until recently, birth rates and death rates were about the same, keeping the population stable. People had many children, but a large number of them died before age five. During the Industrial Revolution, a period of history in Europe and North America where there were great advances in science and technology, the success in reducing death rates was attributable to several factors: (1) in-creases in food production and distribution, (2) improvement in public health (water and sanitation), and (3) medical technology (vaccines and antibiotics), along with gains in education and standards of living within many developing nations. Without these attributes present in many children's lives, they could not have survived common diseases like measles or the flu. People were able to fight and cure deadly germs that once killed them. ’(Kinder, 2009, para. 10). Not to worry though, there are some ways that this inequality maybe reversed. They may not be what many people would approve of, but at least they are ideas of what we could do. That this one for instance, at the end of each month we would tally all the births. Then picking at random from those people that are on death-row or even in prison or jail for life for longer then ten years, would have the honor of helping with the equalization of the birth-to-death ratio. If nothing else, after a few years, this should deter hard crime. Each country and/or state would be responsible for The Equalization Program. There is also the idea of reinstating the two birth policy (China had this policy at one time) with a few ‘minor’ adjustments. One being that right after the second birth there would be a mandatory sterilization of the mother and father, and any other men over fifty years of age would also have to be sterilization. Those that wanted another child would then have to adopt those children that unfortunately don’t have a home. In conclusion, sure over popularization has many causes and it may cause many problems, but at least there are some solutions that can be looked at. I did not say that many people would like them but they’re there. In the end, I hope that things can be equaled out so that we do not have to put such a strain on our one and only earth. If we destroy it, there is not another one that we can start over on. Work cited