Overpopulation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Overpopulation - Essay Example The pieces of evidence presented by census findings, instead of theories of demography, furnish the inevitable core of this idea. These are all according to the proponents of population reduction. During the time of Jesus, the population of the world may have been around 300 million people, densely packed mainly in China, India, and the Mediterranean region (Fagley 1960, 15). After analyzing different approximations, the Secretariat of the United Nations Population Division, proposes â€Å"that the world’s population was likely to have been between 200 and 300 million at the beginning of the Christian era† (Fagley 1960, 15). At some point between1930 and 1960, the growth in the population of the world will be roughly 1 billion, or approximately three times the overall population during the age of the New Testament (Green 2008). Furthermore, this population growth may be twice as huge as the world’s total population during the Reformation. This phenomenon is calle d ‘population explosion’ (Fagley 1960, 15-16). With the current rate of population growth, it can be estimated that in six centuries the number of people on the planet will be such that there will be just a square meter for each individual to inhabit (Jakab 2008). However, this would be impossible since something will take place to stop it. As an arithmetical practice, the picture of the imagined population explosion can certainly be furthered (Gilland 2008). In an April 1958 hypothetical article John L. Russell, S.J. theorized that, supposing a population that grows twofold every century, a growth rate significantly below the current rate, the current population of the world would have stemmed from an Adam and Eve existent roughly in 1000 B.C. (Hollingsworth 1996). A vivid illustration of this theory is presented in the following passage (Fagley 1960): One thousand years hence, at the same rate, there would be two million million people†¦ In 2,500 years from now, the population would be so densely packed that there would be one man on every square yard of the earth’s surface, including the sea. In 5,000 years the weight of human beings would be equal to the total weight of the earth, and in 14,000 years to the estimated total weight of the universe (ibid, p. 18). Apparently, such practices are only useful in illustrating that the current population growth rate cannot continue, and that the issue of overpopulation cannot be mitigated unless the growth rate itself is substantially altered. The major issue at this point is the importance of the short-range forecasts demonstrating the possibility that the human population will double in the very near future. This is certainly not an exploratory or hypothetical practice. This is the reasonable and valid repercussion of the established truth. This is an extension of a population explosion already in full swing. Is there really a problem of overpopulation? What should the governments do abou t this so-called threat of overpopulation? Should population growth be aggressively controlled by the enforcement of laws and taxes? The next section will review and discuss the arguments for and against the implementation of population growth control measures by the government. Overpopulation should be stopped: True or False? Different assertions have been made for endorsing population control mechanisms. They run the