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Olivia Tracey

Ms. Levesque

Communications

21 March 2018

Overpopulation

Each year, as more and more people are born, our planet becomes further populated, creating a

negative affect. While humans inhabit Earth, there are increases in unwanted gases, population,

material usage, and the extinction of other species. If our race does not make drastic changes in

our overall lifestyle, our world will have to make changes that will not affect us positively.

Many of the systems we are currently using are sending our population and our planet’s health

downwards. Factories producing materials such as plastic, metal, etc are producing pollution

everyday in hopes of sustaining our needs for materials such as these. Cars, trucks, trains, planes,

and buses are also contributing to our pollution in order to sustain our population’s need to

travel. As more land is expanded upon, more development is taking place, using fossil fueled

machines to complete many of the difficult jobs. Each and every one of these systems inputting

to the consistent rise of gases and temperatures.

As our average population continues to rise every year, materials and resources are used

constantly because they are needed in order for us to thrive in our environment. If our race keeps
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reproducing at this rapid pace, the resources that we grow and produce will not be able to keep

up with us. We will soon have to begin to genetically modify even more food and materials to

keep up with our species, which will affect our overall health. Risks such as a growth in

allergies, and building up a resistance to certain antibiotics are chances that we will be taking.

(“Genetically Modified Organisms.”) This will also cause us to put up even more factories, to

create materials to build out of, for we will quickly outgrow the growth of plants, food, and even

the growth of other species that we rely on for our nutrition.

Because we are changing the climate of the only habitable planet that is available to us currently,

the human race is slowly driving other species out of this world. Species all around the world are

beginning to adapt to the rising temperatures, but not all of them are successfully doing so fast

enough. They are also being pushed further north, in hopes of finding cooler temperatures, even

some species of plants. (“Half of All Species Are on the Move-And We're Feeling It.”)This

means that animals commonly seen in the South are becoming more and more sparse. With

species running from their native lands, our planet’s food chain will soon become off balance

and affect all of us negatively. Germs and unhealthy organisms are also moving farther into the

mountains, trying to survive, intoxicating more of our population. (“Half of All Species Are on

the Move-And We're Feeling It.”)

Many people may argue that overpopulation is not a big a problem as we think. As our

population advances, so do our scientists and technology. We will likely be able to invent

advanced technology in the future to assist us with problems like climate change and global
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warming. However, in order to produce this advanced technology, factories will have to be

upgraded and made bigger, still affecting our climate negatively, and there will still be affects to

genetically modified food and to develop our technology to such a stage, it will take many years

of trial and failure.

Although the future of our lifestyle and its changes remain unknown, many of us are able to

logically predict that if we do not make current changes in our patterns of reproduction and style

of living, which is carelessly, our planet's future will only go downhill.

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Works Cited

“Overpopulation: Causes, Effects and Solutions.” ​Conserve Energy Future​, 12 Apr. 2017,

Tal, Alon. “Overpopulation Is Still the Problem.” ​The Huffington Post​, TheHuffingtonPost.com,

27 Sept. 2013, www.huffingtonpost.com/alon-tal/overpopulation-is-still-t_b_3990646.html.

“Genetically Modified Organisms.” ​GMO: Harmful Effects​,

enhs.umn.edu/current/5103/gm/harmful.html.

“Half of All Species Are on the Move-And We're Feeling It.” ​National Geographic​, National

Geographic Society, 23 May 2017,

news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/04/climate-change-species-migration-disease/.