THE WORLD IS EXPERIENCING A DRAMATIC INCREASE IN

POPULATION, WHICH IS CAUSING PROBLEMS NOT ONLY FOR POOR,

UNDEVELOPED COUNTRIES, BUT ALSO FOR INDUSTRIALISED AND
DEVELOPED NATIONS. DESCRIBE SOME OF THE PROBLEMS THAT
OVER POPULATION CAUSES, AND SUGGEST AT LEAST ONE POSSIBLE
SOLUTION

Student Name: ngelo Luiz Viana Santos

Student Number: 20062414
Submission:
Lecture:
Module: English Academic Proposes 2

The humanity have being watching a significantly increase of the number of

people in the world. According to the United Nations Population Fund, the number of
people present in the world, in the middle of 2013, was approximately 7.2 billion and
there is an expectance to reach 10 billion in 2025. These huge number followed by this
impressive expectancy are points which need to be thought (preposition?) as well as
ways to resolve it needs to be found, because the consequences of this explosive
demographic growth can already be seen.. (UNFPA, 2013)
Analyzing the Graph 1, it is possible to see that During the Old Stone Age the number
of people in the world were very small. A possible explanation for this is the low life
expectancy which was influenced by the lifestyle and by the natural conditions took
place in the world in this time. A slight increasing of the number of people, can be
observed from New Stone Age to (article?) Middle Ages, followed by a small drop
caused by the black plague, which was an important point to change the trend of the
demographic growth. After the black plague, an incredible demographic explosion could
be seen during the Modern Age, where the world population jumped off 1 million in
1800 to approximately 6 billion in 2000.(McFalls, 1989)
There are some points which can explain why the world has witnessed this
strong increase of population. The first one was the development of groups with the
skill of agriculture and livestock before the period of industrialization. During this first
period, the number of births was balanced by the number of death caused by diseases,
plagues, epidemics and wars. The second stage, after the industrial revolution and
before the II War, was marked by a gradual economic growth in industrialized countries,
which developed preventive and therapeutic medicine, good habits of hygiene and
sanitation. The third stage was caused by the science and technology development
(vaccines and antibiotics) and improvements in sanitation. Then, while death rates
decreased, the birth rates increased significantly. (Kinder, 1998)
With a disorderly increase in population, natural and social consequences can be
expected. Some scientists and organizations believe that the overpopulation can cause
several problems, such as: exhaustion of natural resources, increasing the amount of
pollution, extinction of plants and animals, global warming and principally huger and
misery. Furthermore, this (one or more problems?) kind of problem does not have

borders and social class, so, all groups and countries are vulnerable to have
consequences.
On the other hand, although some results for this problem are well-known,
according to Josu de Castro by the book The Geography of Hunter, there is a
misconception about poverty as a result of overpopulation. As reported by Josu, the
system of population increase is a natural process, but the overpopulation is a product of
poverty, contrasting what some scientists believed. Furthermore, he wrote that a
possible solution for this problem is the decreasing of social and economic inequality.
(Castro, 1952)
Even though the numbers of problems shown are huge, possible solutions need
to be discussed and analyzed. In agreement with the text Overpopulation published by
the site conserve-energy-future.com, solutions are possible and real. A mass
investment in education would help in a significant way for social changes and equality
economic. (CEF, 2010)
Other possible solution could be the creation of laws, with the objective to
control the number of child per couple, as made in China. However, this kind of action
can be a dilemma for the cultural plurality of a country. Susan Greenhalgh in the book
"Just One Child: Science and Policy in Deng's China", wrote about this law as: One of
the most troubling social policies of modern times, reflecting that laws of population
control need to be carefully analyzed. (Greenhalgh, 2008)
To sum up, the overpopulation is a current problem and it needs to be controlled
with programs of social development. For me, an important action that can be done now
is a propagation of knowledge of sex education in schools and universities. A significant
number of teenagers begin their sexual life very early because they do not have enough
informations about this subject in schools and in house. Thereby, It is possible to begin
to ease the problem and give for students and sons a better orientation with the use of
sex education.

Graph 1

Source: McFalls, J. A., 1989. Population: A Lively Introduction. In: Population: A

Lively Introduction. s.l.:s.n.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Castro, J., 1952. The Geography of hunger. Califrnia: Little Brown.
CEF, 2010. Concerve Energy Future. [Online]
Available at: http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/causes-effectssolutions-of-overpopulation.php
[Accessed 06 August 2014].
Greenhalgh, S., 2008. Just One Child: Science and Policy in Deng's China.
California : University of California Press.
Kinder, C., 1998. The population Explosion: Causes and Consequences.
[Online]
Available at:
http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1998/7/98.07.02.x.html
[Accessed 06 August 2014].
McFalls, J. A., 1989. Population: A Lively Introduction. In: Population: A Lively
Introduction. s.l.:s.n.
UNFPA, 2013. UNFPA. [Online]
Available at: http://www.unfpa.org/pds/trends.htm
[Accessed 06 August 2014].