The human population of our planet Earth is now approximately 6,800 billion inhabitants. The scary part is that over 135 million more will be born every year. How many more people can Earth sustains without drastically changing the environment in which we all depend upon for our very existence?
This important issue of overpopulation is the very foundation why the overall environment of our planet has gotten worse during the last century. It is estimated that the total world population will be well over seven billion before the end of the year 2012. The rapid increase in human population has raised grave concerns about the use of limited supply of Earth resources, and its linked to the threats to our ecosystem.
As population increases there are more and more demands for new homes, cars, energy use, food, clothing, concrete roads and byways and a whole host of other needs that deplete the Earth's resources of trees, oil, minerals, animals, water and space. The concerns of scientists and other experts are the ever-increasing buildup of carbon dioxide, global warming, other climate changes, pollution, oil spills, endangered species and other calamities.
Most countries are already overpopulated. China and India hold about 60 percent of the population in Asia, about 1,300 billion and 1,100 billion respectively and create many of the environmental problems we are now facing. Europe is densely populated with over 700 million people. A good example is the Philippines. The landmass area of the Philippines is less than the state of California but must feed over 91 million inhabitants. The poorer the country the more people it holds.
How do we solve the problem of overpopulation as the major cause to our environment? The United Nation must lead the way by instituting the following:
1. Educate countries to reduce birthrates.
2. Provide birth control devices.
3. Ignore the protest and complaints from religious institutions like the Catholic church.
4. Teach countries, particularly the poor ones, how to sustain and reduce the need for natural resources. We must also pressure nations to slow down the destruction of forests, wild animals and water supply. For instance, the population increase in Brazil has forced the government to cut down the trees and fauna in the Amazon region by millions of acres. The Amazon jungle is huge and affects climate changes around the world. If we allow the Amazon to be partially destroyed, we will have less rain and more drought. Similar concerns are also occurring in the jungles of Borneo, New Guinea, Sumatra, Malaysia and the Congo.
5. We as people of the world, in particular the wealthier nations, must develop conservation measures. We must reduce waste in all forms. We must practice recycling our garbage and unwanted items. We must use less energy, reduce our driving habits and improve public transportation. Conserve, conserve.
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