The human population has increase dramaticaly over the past few decades

Group 9: Lê Ngọc Anh Nguyễn Hồng Phú Lê Kim Tuyến Class : 16E19NN Topic: Overpopulation of urban areas has led to numerous problems.. The human population has increased dramatically ove

Group 9: Lê Ngọc Anh

Nguyễn Hồng Phú

Lê Kim Tuyến

Class : 16E19NN

Topic: Overpopulation of urban areas has led to numerous problems Identify one

or two serious problems and suggest ways that governments and individuals can tackle these problems

The human population has increased dramatically over the past few decades, leading to an international pressing issue – Overpopulation This urgent problem has destructive effects not only on the environment but the human being itselfs

The incessantly rising population in urban areas is responsible for a variety

of consequences for the environment The most obvious one is species extinction

By an annual absorption of 42% of the Earth’s terrestrial net primary productivity, 50% of its fresh water, 50% of its land mass being transformed, human has been dominating planetary physical, chemical, and biological conditions As a result, nearly a third of 64.837 species examined worldwide are at risk according to the

2012 IUNC Red List of Threatened Species (Effects of Human Overpopulation published on 20th November 2013) Another effect is the serious depletion of

natural resources In other words, limited natural resources such as fossil

fuels, coral reefs and frontier forests, continue to plunge, which is both

placing competitive stress on the basic life sustaining resources and leading to a diminished life quality The Global Footprint Network reported that turning

resources into waste faster than waste can be turned back into resources puts

people in global ecological overshoot

Not only does the explosion of population in big cities adversely affect the environment but it also has detrimental impacts on human being In the first place,

it is attributed to the lack of job availability As mentioned in Human

Overpopulation: Causes and Effects in developing countries, Hana Maryil

indicated that the increasing number of people entering the workforce, together with the declining number of workers leaving to make room for new employees, is attributed to the paudity of job availabilities to support enough of the working population According to the article Employment- Population Ratio posted on Business Insider, employment growth picked up enough to grow faster than the population However, it began to stall in March 2016, with the ratio at 59.9% then dropped to 39.7% In the second place, population overgrowth is considered as a

serious cause leading to health problems A report named The risks of rapid

urbanization in developing countriesby John Scott mentioned that 63% of the urban population in sub-Saharan Africa and and 42% of dwellers in big cities in south-central Asia live in slums and have to face a highly unwanted levels of risk

to illnesses, worm infections, cholera and diarrhea

In terms of solutions, the government should be responsible to raise public awareness of how overpopulation affects human lives As reported by the

Everythingconnects, nearly 40% of pregnancies are unintended, which equates to about 80 million unintended pregnancies each years If people are thoroughly educated about overpopulation and family planning, they will acknowledge how their actions affect to the country’s population Moreover, not only the adults but the children should be educated in school about this worldwide issue as well Therefore, they could comprehend the economic and environmental impacts of overpopulation; and hopefully the next generations will be more practical to deal with this problem

Another feasible way to counter this question is to implement the one-child policy This had shown to be effective in China, which has prevented 400 million births by applying this solution However, this policy has both advantages and disadvantages itself The policy has resulted to positive effects; girls,who

traditionally has lower status in households, are now given more opportunities for education On the other hand, it causes an increase in abortion rates due to the traditional preference for sons, especially in Asian countries Subsequently, it will lead to gender imbalance between men and women, which is an alarming situation

in China currently

In conclusion, overpopulation in big cities has negative impacts on both environment and human beings As a result, enacting new policies and raising awareness about overpopulation are two possible ways that should be taken into consideration to lessen the influence of overcrowding