500 words essay on overpopulation
Overpopulation is a condition where the number of individuals in a given area exceeds the capacity of the environment to sustain them. This can lead to several negative effects on the environment, economy, and society. Let’s discuss the causes of overpopulation, the effects of overpopulation, and strategies for addressing overpopulation.
Causes of Overpopulation
- Progress in Science: The biggest cause of such a boom in population is without a doubt the progress in medical fields. The average life span just 2 centuries ago was 30 years. This has jumped to a drastic 60 years in the 21st Progress in medical fields has resulted in many surgeries and vaccines being developed that can cure the once life-endangering diseases to be cured by a single injection. Not to mention the widely available science has made it easily accessible in every part of the world to find diseases that were rare and unknown in the past.
- Lack of Family planning: While the increase in population isn’t a bad thing. What makes it harmful is the production of people living below the average wage. The poor will remain poor even if they produce a dozen off-springs. Lack of education and awareness regarding family planning also results in people being born into poor families with even poorer health conditions.
- Urbanization: As more and more people shift from rural areas to urban areas, the population becomes uneven. People who shift to cities will without a doubt prefer to produce offspring in the city rather than the village. As a result, youth has been declining in the villages and has been booming in the cities.
Harmful Effects of Overpopulation
- Economic Instability: Overpopulation becomes harmful when it’s left unattended by the government. The lack of education means that more and more people being born illiterate contribute nothing to society and become a burden to the economy and the taxes. This has become a major cause of the downfall of Pakistan’s economy whose illiteracy rate and unemployment have been rising yearly.
- Low production of food: The increase in population does not mean that cattle and agriculture will increase alongside it. As the population increases so do the hungry mouths while the production of food remains the same. This results in major inflation in the prices of basic human food and necessary making it difficult for a huge part of the population to afford it.
- Soil Pollution: An increase in population means an increase in the number of people who produce wasteful products. This is directly related to an increase in more and more of soil pollution which hurts the agricultural land resulting in lower production of food and an increase in inflation of prices.
Conclusion
To combat Overpopulation, The government has taken a lot of steps, especially in the field of Family planning. There have been more and more organizations with the sole purpose of raising awareness regarding family planning and educating the common folk. They are also working hard to address the overpopulation issues regarding poverty and its direct relation to lack of education.
There have also been efforts and policy changes to increase female labor as a huge part of Pakistan’s population is unemployed because of the stereotypes of the past that force women with a passion to stay home and be housewives. This resulted in a lot of labor force that could have contributed to the economy remaining a burden.
All in all, Overpopulation is a global issue that needs to be tackled as soon as possible. It affects both the government and the population.