Graphic by Ellen Kirkness ’12

by Ashley Yen ‘14

As widely reported, the world population reached 7 billion people last month. Within approximately the past 40 years, the global population has doubled. The tremendous growth will continue in the near future when the world population tops 8 billion in a mere 12 years. From one point of view, this is a remarkable testament to the success of the human species.

From another perspective, however, the population growth troubles many experts who worry about the pressures this has put on natural resources and the planet itself. Another big concern is whether there will be more human suffering in the forms of poverty, hunger and disease than are already occurring.

In many underdeveloped countries, large masses of people are starving and struggling to survive. More than 13 million Africans are desperate for food in Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia alone. Making the challenges more complex is the fact that the highest birth rates are occurring in impoverished countries such as Niger, Mali and Uganda.

As population growth explodes in these areas, the pressures on scarce resources are magnified. These resources include food, water and sources of energy. Gas and other natural sources of energy have been fought over for many years. Gas is a precious resource that powers daily lives. The price of gas has skyrocketed throughout the years due to the large number of people driving on the roads today. Fresh water is an important resource that every person needs to survive, but in recent years, the amount of fresh water has decreased. Dirty, undrinkable water kills roughly 5,000 people every day around the world. This unusable resource is a result of overpopulation.

Another key issue connected to population is climate change. Due to overpopulation and the industrilization in such places as South America and China, more carbon dioxide and other compounds are emitted. The scientific community is in agreement that such events like melting glaciers and abnormal weather patterns are clear signs of global warming.

There is not a definite plan that will fix the problems that comes with a continuously growing population, but these problems will have an effect throughout our lifetime.