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World population crosses 8 billion, here is what will happen

EconomyWorld population crosses 8 billion, here is what will happen

The world population crosses 8 billion on Tuesday, according to the United Nations, projected to peak at around 10.4 billion in the 2080s.

The world population has doubled from 4 billion in a span of 48 years.  As per the report, India might surpass China as the world’s most populous country in 2023. It is estimated that the peak will be 10.4 billion people around 2080 sometime and after that, the population should decrease according to reports. The decrease would probably be due to mass destruction and deaths.

Here Is What Over Population Does

Food shortages

According to the public health resource MPH Online, one in eight people around the world suffered hunger or undernourishment between 2010 and 2012. This is felt especially in overpopulated parts of the world where demand far outpaces the supply of food—and it will only worsen as the population grows.

Water scarcity

More fresh water will be consumed. Today, the world already faces water scarcity: According to the World Wildlife Fund, approximately 1.1 billion people currently lack access to water, and 2.7 billion people have a limited amount of water available to them for at least one month of the year.  This will only increase with the population explosion.

Zooming food prices

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says that food production must increase 70 percent by 2050 to keep pace with growing demand—but if the world population is already struggling to feed itself, then it’s unlikely that it’ll be able to stay stuffed in some 30 years. If production can’t support the growing number of people, overpopulation could potentially result in increased food prices

Natural disasters

The more carbon dioxide there is in the environment, the more likely there are to be major natural disasters like hurricanes.  With more people on the planet, carbon dioxide will increase. In the book Environmental Issues Surrounding Human Overpopulation, researchers note that in India, “overpopulation is making the country prone to natural disasters” like tsunamis.

Higher unemployment rates and a falling economy

An unsustainable number of people has the potential to lead to fewer opportunities in the workforce. With more people out of work, the economy will inevitably take a turn for the worse. Higher unemployment rates have been found to lead to low savings and investments.

Drain government funds

“Even among developed countries, increasing population growth would mandate increased expenditures on basic infrastructure, leading to unproductive capital widening at the expensive of capital deepening,” notes one paper published in the journal Ecology and Society. Overpopulation would force governments to keep bending backward without being able to upgrade any system of people’s living.

Mass plant and animal extinction

If and when overstuffed cities expand to accommodate additional people, many will be forced to overflow into areas that had previously been untouched. The problem? According to the National Wildlife Federation, this expansion is estimated to result in the extinction of up to one-third of the world’s plant and animal species.

Deforestation

As Swarthmore College Environmental Studies researcher Max Katz-Balmes explains, “overpopulation affects deforestation on a truly global scale, even in relatively uninhabited regions.” According to Katz-Balmes, “a clear correlation exists between extremely low population density and maintenance of forests.” In other words, the larger the population grows, the worse deforestation will become.

Heavy traffic and overcrowded public transportation

Of course, horrible traffic would be one of the more immediate results of too many people. While infrastructure improvements would eventually help alleviate some congestion, the sheer numbers of cars filling the freeways and roads would mean that getting places would take much longer. If you live in a metropolitan area like New York or Los Angeles, then it’s probably hard to imagine traffic getting any worse, but believe us when we say that it’s possible.

Overfishing

When the population grows, it will need something to sustain it—namely, protein-rich foods like fish. But, as Dermot O’Gorman, the CEO of World Wildlife Fund Australia, writes, “within 15 years, an additional 115,000 tons of fish will be needed across the Pacific to provide communities with the livelihoods and protein they require.”

Overgrazing

The demand to produce more food for a gigantic population would put a strain on local and commercial farms, too. This could lead to the intensive consumption of plants by livestock, otherwise known as overgrazing. The lack of rotation of grazing animals combined with their overconsumption of natural resources would degrade the soil and lead to a range of other environmental issues.

Heightened climate for wars

The strain overpopulation puts on resources and opportunities can lead to tension between nations and communities—a pressure that has the prospect to start wars. Countries under fear, pressure, and ambition are more likely to start wars and this happens under the strain of overpopulation.

Badly contaminated bodies of water

A bigger population would jeopardize the purity of the world’s water supplies. As one 2017 article published in the journal Sustainability notes, “human activities pose a significant threat to the water quality of rivers when pollution exceeds the threshold limit,”, particularly in urban areas that tend to increase at a much more quick rate.

Fewer nonrenewable resources

Nonrenewable resources are called such because they cannot be easily replaced by natural means. These include things like gas, oil, and coal. And while we have access to nonrenewable resources now, MPH Online notes that our supplies will run out in 35 years—even sooner if the population continues to grow as rapidly as it currently is.

Conclusion

The only way to combat this is to go for population control with birth control methods.  The Population Control Bill, 2019 was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in July 2019 by Rakesh Sinha. The goal of the bill is to control the population growth of India.

The 2020 bill proposes to introduce a two-child policy per couple and aims to incentivize its adoption through various measures such as educational benefits, taxation cuts, home loans, free healthcare, and better employment opportunities. The 2019 bill proposed by Sinha talks about introducing penalties for couples not adhering to the two-child policy such as debarment from contesting in elections and ineligibility for government jobs.

In July 2022, it was reported that BJP Mp Ravi Kishan was going to introduce private members’ bill on Population control.  In the same mouth, Giriraj Singh supported calls for Population control laws.

The proposed bill was signed by 125 Members of Parliament (MP) and is yet to become an act of law.

You may want to read https://hamslivenews.com/2021/07/14/ups-population-bill-legally-is-violating-alienates-muslims-and-unnecessary/

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