This paper discusses the issues surrounding overpopulation and the ecological degradation that is occurring; these problems will progressively get worse unless something is done to control our growing population. There are simply too many people on our planet, and the population is not showing anysigns of slowing down. It is having disastrous effects on our environment. There are too manyimplications and interrelationships to discuss in this paper, but the three substances that our earthconsists of: land, water and air, are being destroyed. Our forests are being cut down at an alarming rate,

bearing enormous impacts on the health of earth. Our oceans and seas are being polluted and

over-fished. Our atmosphere is injected with increasing amounts of carbon dioxide, which hurts the entire planet. All of these problems can be traced to our vast, rapidly expanding population, which has stressed our world far too greatly.

In 1994, the world population was 5,602,800,000. This population had a doubling time of only

forty-one years (De Blij and Muller, 1994, p.527). The massive amount of people has had highly

destructive impacts on the earth's environment. These impacts occur o

these areas have traditionally high fertility rates. Although third world countries do have a far larger

place and would certainly have become inhabitable again. Forests have crucial roles in the carbon,

"The sky is held up by the trees. If the forest disappears the sky,

Industry through CFC's, accounts for almost another quarter, twenty four percent. The remaining quarter

reversing the trend of recent decades. A global seafood harvest of twenty two million tons in 1950

increase greater than that ever seen over the past ten thousand years(Ramphal, 1992, p. 77). These

potentially become even more destructive towards the environment. Developed countries must seek to

should also be noted that when wood is unavailable, animal dung is burned for fuel. This diverts a great

The concept of momentum of population growth is one that must be considered. It states that

Some common words found in the essay are:
Industry CFC's, Population Activities, Ehrlich Ehrlich, Blij Muller, Brown Kane, Consequences Environment, Climate Change, Celsius Ramphal, North America, Agriculture Organization, carbon dioxide, developed countries, population growth, global warming, fertility rates, fossil fuels, developing countries, third world, greenhouse gases, ozone layer, environmentally bad technology, de blij muller, consumption energy fossil, blij muller 1994, demand fuel wood,
Approximate Word count = 3103
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)