Summary
According to the CNN News, it took thousands of years for Earth’s population to reach 5 billion, but after the 1900’s, it took a little over 30 years for the population to become close to 8 billion. This explosive growth on population concerns the leaders of the United Nations, who then “created World Population Day in 1989 to raise awareness about the problems caused by overpopulation” (Davis & Griggs, 2019). But despite the explosive growth, some areas, such as Japan and China, have populations which are actually shrinking because of sustained lower levels of fertility. In addition, poor countries have shorter lives as “life expectancy at birth in the least developed countries lags 7.4 years behind the global average” (Davis & Griggs, 2019). Regardless of their shorter lives, poor countries tend to be overpopulated. Another pattern to look at when addressing population is that people are aging. This is because life expectancy increased and fertility rates are falling, which indicates that people are living longer and reproducing less (David & Griggs, 2019). Overall, there are trends when addressing population, but regardless of what those are, the world’s population is growing rapidly which may be a concern.
Sociological Reflection
After looking over the article, leaders of the United Nations aren’t the only ones who believe that overpopulation is a problem. Many are concerned about overpopulation because “there was fear that our “small planet” could not support massive increases in the number of people” (Galta, Chapter 15 Lecture, 2020). This concern has not died down as “many experts continue to be concerned about overpopulation, as they feel it is directly responsible for the hunger and malnutrition that plague hundreds of millions of people in poor nations” (Galta, Chapter 15 Lecture, 2020). Overpopulation does not allow the earth to keep up with plentiful resources, as there are too many people who quickly begin to use up what little resources we have. But despite the concerns many experts have on overpopulation, others believe that the world’s resources are sufficient. These experts “attribute this problem not to overpopulation and lack of food but rather to problems in distributing the sufficient amount of food that does in fact exist” (Galta, Chapter 15 Lecture, 2020). These two different views that represent overpopulation are an ongoing debate on whether or not overpopulation is a concern. It is very likely that overpopulation isn’t an issue, but rather it is the lack of proper distribution in essentials that people need to survive. Overall, overpopulation displays itself as a concern to many people around the world, but many should also be aware of other factors that also contribute to the concerns that come with overpopulation.
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https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/11/world/world-population-day-trnd/index.html
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