Overpopulation in Science
Table of Contents
The Science Behind Overpopulation or Overpopulation in Science!
So you’re probably aware that there are a lot of people on our world. Last week, I believe it was Wednesday when we switched to seven — I –, nobody knows.
But no one knows how many people there are; it’s difficult to keep track on such a large world.
However, there are currently around seven billion people on the planet. And they continue to be born all the time. In fact, for every two individuals who die, around four are born. Every second, roughly four kids are born into our world, while less than two individuals are said to be leaving it. So, using simple math, our world’s population is increasing at a rate of around 2.5 people each second. So 7 billion people, it’s difficult to comprehend how many people that is; perhaps if you were to sit down and count to 7 billion, it would take you 200 years or something. They, on the other hand, have lots of room.
If you put 7 billion people shoulder to shoulder as if we were at a Sting performance, those 7 billion people could fit in an area the size of Los Angeles. We can all fit on Earth. There is room for all of us. So, as long as there’s enough room for everyone, what’s the big deal about having 7 billion people? People have been worrying about this for a long time, since roughly 1800, when the world’s population reached one billion. I know what you’re thinking: you’re a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a billionth At the time, agriculture was the foundation of all economies across the world.
(Overpopulation in Science)
How much could we cultivate using human labour, farm animals, maybe a scythe and a woodenplow?
So a billion people were pushing that type of technology.
And the first big-time thinking dude to completely freak out over their being too many friggin’ people was a British economist named Thomas Malthus.
Thomas Malthus determined that human numbers expand exponentially, but human ability to feed each other grows more linearly.
As a result, our species’ expansion tends to outpace our ability to feed everyone.
And when that happens, it’s fairly clear what happens: hunger and starvation.
And those who are left behind who do not die as a result of those things can be taken care of by sickness and war.
Malthus believed that humanity’s natural state was to be cruel, wretched, pitiful, and snivelling in a pile of filthy underwear.
Malthus remarked in his article on the theory of population “Human vices are active and capable depopulation ministers.
They are the forerunners in the great army of destruction, and they frequently complete the horrible deed themselves.
But if they fail in their elimination campaign, sickly seasons, epidemics, pestilence, and plague will sweep away their hundreds and tens of thousands.
If their achievement is still insufficient, a massive, unavoidable hunger looms in the background, levelling the people with the food of the planet with a single terrible strike.”
Diseases are also more likely to spread, and malnutrition can kill a large number of people.
Though he made some valid points, as long as mankind is nourished, we’re a fairly lovely bunch of folks.
But I have the same problem; when my blood sugar drops just a little bit, I start murdering all of my neighbours.
When your and your family’s life are endangered by starving, you would do anything for food, including go to war.
Mister Doom and Gloom, on the other hand, could not forecast the freakin’ Industrial Revolution, which not only allowed for the production of considerably more food with far fewer labourers, but was also the reason for this.
Yeah, I guess.
What there is is, um, the Earth’s population smashing through Malthus’s ceiling, then his atmosphere, then his ozone layer, then his mesosphere, and then his- probably really impressed by this.
If you’re not yet impressed, simply keep gazing at it.
I’m willing to wait.
I have the entire day.
It took mankind fifty thousand years to get from zero to one billion people, then another two hundred years to get from one billion to seven billion.
So, thank you, Industrial Revolution, for allowing us to grow more food using machines, and for the fast and efficient transportation that it takes to get all that food to the people who needed it, and also for the medical advances that helped us understand things like the importance of soap and how diseases worked, and as a result, humans now live about four decades longer than the average eighteenth-century man. Yeah! Revolutionary Industrial Revolution! So, if the Industrial Revolution had not occurred, Malthus could have been correct about how freakin’ dumb it was to be a human. So the world’s population is presently rising at a rate of roughly 1.1 percent per year, which is somewhat faster than the 1.3 percent per year that got us here. If present trends continue, the world’s population will be around 9.3 billion by 2050.
So the issue is, when will the population outnumber our ability to feed everyone on the planet?
It turns out that the question isn’t how many people the Earth can handle, but rather how many rich people the Earth can accommodate.
Because individuals, in general, require things for survival such as, uh, air, water, and food.
However, wealthier individuals have different expectations.
We have a lot of agricultural crops in America, for example, and we have to use a lot of fresh water to irrigate those agricultural crops.
Do you want to guess what the most irrigated crop in the United States of America is?
You were incorrect unless you have already heard this statistic!
That’s grass!
It takes more water to grow a lawn than it does to grow all of America’s maize.
Humans’re consuming it at an alarming rate; despite being a precious resource, we may consume less than 1% of the water on our planet. The majority of it is saline water that we cannot drink or use to irrigate crops, while 70% of our freshwater is frozen in glaciers. So pure freshwater is non-negotiable and in short supply. So, what comes next? Food, oh food. The world’s combined food supply could feed around 11 billion people, but there are 1 billion people who are hungry. So that’s one of the most pitiful and irritating aspects of our world. So, if there is enough food for 11 billion people, yet 7 billion people are hungry, who is consuming all of our food? Eating all that food is food. A large portion of the food grown in America is consumed by animals. It’s difficult to express the truth, but affluent people can do whatever they want. When I say ‘rich,’ it’s vital to understand that I’m not referring to the 99percent vs the 1percent rich. I’m talking about if you have running water, electricity that comes into your home, a computer that you can watch YouTube videos on, and can afford to eat meat on a regular basis – you are a wealthy person on the planet, and you, you know, sometimes we just have to accept the fact that we – even those of us who don’t have it so good in America – are better off than a lot of other people.
There are many people in the world who do not understand this.
To me, having a hot shower is the pinnacle of luxury.
Assuming you are a first-worlder, living in a developed nation like Europe, America, or Japan, you consume as much as 32 Kenyans on average. And today, the number of wealthy individuals in the globe is rapidly increasing, which is exactly what we’ve always desired for the world. So now we have all these relatively well-off individuals going throughout the world, and it’s fantastic! Except that they want more. Meanwhile, a significant proportion of all the infants being born right now are not being born to these wealthy individuals in the developed world. They are being born in developing countries, thus the population is not just increasing. It’s expanding in this strange, terrifying, lopsided way. People in many wealthy nations have essentially ceased producing babies. For example, in Japan, everyone is asking, “Japan, what are you doing?” ‘Why aren’t you having any children?’ ‘Uhh don’t know sorta don’t feel likeit,’ Japan says. As a result, the average Japanese home has one infant. In comparison to two or three infants in America or five or six in much of Sub-Saharan Africa, they are not even replacing themselves. So underdeveloped countries are experiencing a baby boom, which is what happens when vaccinations and antibiotics are available, as well as safe drinking water and improved sanitation. You get fewer infants dying, and I hope we’re all entirely and utterly in favour of fewer babies dying. However, it also implies that there will be a large number of new Sub-Saharan Africans in the next 50 years or so, and this is where many of the 1 billion now hungry people live. So, while we in the rich world have no kids and consume enough food to nourish four truckloads of newborns, governments in poor nations are grappling with where to house all of these new people and how to feed them all. You will also experience a ‘youth bulge.’ Many developing countries are now experiencing a massive increase in the number of persons aged 15 to 29. And all of those young people are out there, seeking for the same jobs at the same time, feeling generally hormonal as young people do, and dissatisfied with their position in life.
According to some social scientists, adolescent bulges like these have been responsible for practically every insurgency throughout history, from the English revolt in 1640 to the more recent Arab Spring. And neither of those things were horrible, but we should be mindful that more of them may be on the way. Another thing Reverend Malthus never considered was what would happen if humans banded together and took over the entire frickin’world. Seriously, since it turns out that there are some other things living on our planet with humans. Our drive for more space and more goods is putting a strain on almost every ecosystem on the planet. So much so that every year, 52 mammal, amphibian, and avian species worldwide move one category closer to extinction. This globe is enormous, but there’s only so much space, and it turns out that Bengal tigers aren’t very well-suited to high-rise life.
So, as there are more of us, there are less of virtually everything else, except for things we love eating and caressing – dogs and cats, whose populations continue to expand.
So, new individuals, happy birthday, and welcome to Earth.
I’ll try not to mess things up too much for you.
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