Is there, or is there not an overpopulation problem? I have seen several debates pop up in several places (casual conversation, internet forum sites, etc.) with people arguing whether the world is overpopulated. Some say that it is a myth, and that some people just are taking up the resources. Others say that it is a reality, and steps must be done to prevent this from becoming a terrible problem.

First off, we need to define the word “overpopulation.”

If you define it as it is in the Merriams-Websters Eleventh Edition Collegiate Dictionary, it would be “the condition of having a population so dense as to cause environmental deterioration, an impaired quality of life, or a population crash.” In other words, overpopulation is when it is so crowded that it affects the environment in a negative way, the quality of life (food, housing, etc.) is compromised, and the population eventually gets so large it peaks and collapses on itself.

So do we have an overpopulation problem?

Some people argue that we do not because there are still many places on Earth which are sparsely populated. But the problem behind this is that many of those places are extremely hard to live in. The people living there would have to endure a lower living quality of life.

I believe that there are not enough resources on Earth to sustain such a large growing population. (We’ve already surpassed the Earth’s carrying capacity.) Eventually, there may be a mass die-down in population because of famine, plague, etc. Now the problem with the die-down is that a lot of the technology that we’ve developed and the knowledge we’ve found may die off with it.

Ah yes, technology. Consider this: health care improves, and therefore less people die of diseases. That also means the population grows. But then there wouldn’t be enough to feed those people and that would conclude in a major set-back in population numbers.

Overpopulation is definitely going to be a problem in the future, however. That’s something to keep in mind.

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Other opinions and blogs:

P.A.P

Are We Running Out of Resources?