Overpopulation in 2050 2 Overpopulation in 2050: Danger’s of the Near Future “Humans interact with aliens”. That may be the top headline in 2050. It is impossible to foresee the future but through recent patterns and careful observations, it is pretty safe to say that the world will face overpopulation. Overpopulation is when the amount of people in an area exceeds the carrying-capacity. Just sixty years ago the world’s population was two and a half billion (U. S Census Bureau). That number has rapidly risen and now sits just above seven billion.
Many demographers believe that number will exceed nine billion by 2050. There is no way the earth will have enough resources to support that number of people. The main population issues for 2050 will be overpopulation due to the advancement in medicines, the lack of female education and the continued poverty in developing countries. Due to overpopulation, there have been significant changes in the medical field with anaesthetics, artificial hearts and vaccinations. It is inevitable that new discoveries and inventions will continue to be made.
The future advancements in medicines will result in a massive decrease in death rates, for example the treatment of cancer will change and there will be a way to be cured faster. The average life span for a person was once just forty years but with all the medical improvements that number now hovers around sixty to seventy years old (World Development Indicators). It may sound ludicrous but is it impossible for that number to one day eclipse one hundred? The citizens from the “baby boom” are aging and entering their senior years, which will demand a lot of medical attention.
With medicines still improving, these senior citizens will receive amazing health care to keep Overpopulation in 2050 3 their systems running and with the younger generation entering the age of parenthood, a population will explode as the mortality rate becomes extremely lower than the fertility rate (Dynamics of Population Aging). In 2050, another population issue which we will face is lack of female education. It is commonly believed that knowledge is power. Millions of females all over the world are denied access to reproduction education.
Only forty-three percent of girls in developing countries attend secondary school (Empowerment International). It is important for women to know their rights. Women fail to possess the sense of knowledge to properly use contraceptives. The lack of knowledge that many women fail to gain often leads to early pregnancy. The fertility rate in Canada is only 1. 6 (United Nations) thus resulting in a smaller population considering this rate is maintained and ignoring other factors that affect population such as immigration.
Developed countries have more well educated and literate women (United Nations) thus making them it easier for them not to reproduce whereas in developing countries they have females who do not have access to contraceptives due to their lack of knowledge in sexual education. The fertility rate of some developing countries such as Uganda and Yemen exceed seven. Women in developing countries are unaware of the excessive growth in population and will continue to reproduce many of the babies that will subsequently result in the massive population the world is expected to face in 2050.
Continued poverty in developing countries is a main issue when it comes to overpopulation. Poverty has been an ongoing issue for thousands of years. Almost half the Overpopulation in 2050 4 world lives on $2. 50 a day and over eighty percent of the world’s population lives on less than $10 a day (Anup Shah). The lack of humanitarian assistance from powerful countries leaves this issue unsolved. The world spends a massive sum of money on military but ignores global outcries such as poverty. In 2008, the world military expenditure was estimated to have reached 1. 4 trillion dollars (Anup Shah).
A tiny fraction of that amount can put an end to poverty but global security continues to be overlooked. Every other child is in poverty which amounts to one billion kids (Anup Shah). Most developing countries still face financial debts. Developing countries often spend the majority of the money received to pay off these debts, which is another case of poverty being ignored. With poverty comes a poor living condition, which will also cause very bad effects on the population, with diseases such as Malaria and HIV/AIDS. There are also lack of nutrients, poor health institutions and very poor sanitation.
Poverty is constantly overlooked and will continue to be a problem in 2050. At this rate, overpopulation seems inevitable but it is definitely not unavoidable. If these issues continue to be ignored then it could be much more difficult to solve these problems as they expand and as these current problems grow, new problems will be introduced. Overpopulation will have a fatal effect on the Earth’s resources. There will be a tremendous increase in poverty as Earth’s resources run low because of the amount of people and how to spread it evenly so no one suffers from malnutrition.
That is also the reason why world hunger will be at its worst point. It is definitely possible to eliminate Overpopulation in 2050 5 these problems the world currently faces but the countries fail to seriously challenge these problems and find a solution. China is a great blueprint to prevent the world from overpopulation, it is ironic because China has the biggest population in the world but the policies and benefits they offer is a great strategy that any country could imitate to avoid overpopulation. Even with that said; expect the world to overpopulate causing travesties, pandemics and disasters as 2050 approaches.
