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Homework Help: Social Studies: World Issues: Population Pressure
by Leo Galleguillos
What is population pressure?
Population pressure focuses on the idea that shortage of food and other necessities will occur due to over-population. May suggest there be a halt in population growth; other have a more complex issue to make of it.
Why be concerned?
Every year the population of the world increases by 1.7%. No one knows exactly how many people earth will be able to hold, but it won't be long before we experience shortage of food and shortage of other necessities. Mankind could soon be forced to live in one-room apartments, taking up the smallest amount of space possible. There would be no food, no space, no air, no materials; nothing at all.
It's easy to ignore the problem when you know it won't occur during your generation. But think about your children, and your children's children, and your children's children's children. You could live to see them all. But you won't live to know you were concerned about their future and "ranking" in society.
If people do not become concerned for population pressure, no one will be. If only a few become concerned, others will become interested, and the involvement of the issue will increase.
Being concerned shows you care about future generations.
Details on Population Pressure
By the year 2000, the world population is expected to reach 6 billion. By 3000, it's expected to reach 10 billion.
However, populations aren't always maintained in one area. Populations have been known to travel from countryside to city in large numbers, also known as population movement. This causes small cities to grow at rates faster than that of developed countries.
Population movement is what will truly cause lack of food and other necessities. The United States will never run out of land for people, but instead people will crowd. Reasons for crowding include industries, jobs, food, and a feeling of being with other people.
Some believe we will never have to worry about population pressure because God or nature will take care of it. It is believed by some that a disastrous plague will occur wiping out half the human population.
Others believe we will never have to worry about population pressure because most of us will die off due to lack of food, the way nature was meant to be. There have been numerous cases in which animals such as mice have multiplied at extremely high rates, and then died off due to lack of food. Snakes that ate mice then died off without mice, and mice again multiplied at high rates without a predator to eat them. The cycle goes on. Could the same cycle occur with humans?
Of course, everyone has their own opinions and solutions to the issue, which are described on a later page. Either way, it's an issue everyone's going to hear about, and for a good reason.
Solutions to Population Pressure
Fortunately, many scientists, and non-scientists, are figuring out ways and coming up with ideal solutions that will require the least deaths possible, and give a large feeling of relaxation. Some of the most common solutions include reducing our birth rate to the death rate, also known as zero population growth, and creating laws that allow families to have no more than a certain number of children.
As said before, zero population growth is an idea our world may be able to accomplish. It's the idea that for every one human being that is born, one dies. With such a world, obviously, the population would never increase or decrease. However, most believe zero population growth will never work. While farmers need large families to maintain farmland, rural families need children to take care of them when they're older.
The idea of creating laws that restrict the number of children a family can have won't seem to work either. There are many more people who want children than people who would decide to not have a baby just to relax the population pressure. Plus, at this point in time, almost no one is worried about population pressure. Who wouldn't have a child just to solve a problem that will occur thousands of years later?
Homework Help: Social Studies: World Issues
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