Overpopulation
...y aspect of our lives from education to employment to the environment. It contributes to hunger, migration, war and disease. To see these connections, it is first necessary to understand that the world is a complex system, and that all of these issues are completely interconnected. Every event that occurs in one part of the system affects, in countless large and small ways, every other part of the system. It’s kind of like the big circle of life that is mentioned in Disney’s The Lion King. Every species affects the other and there is a delicate balance between them. If that balance is tampered with, the entire circle becomes in jeopardy of extinction. From a population perspective, it looks like this. When human numbers increase, human needs also increase. We meet those needs by consuming more resources. That consumption causes environmental damage, because the environment is the source of all our essential resources. It seems like nothing more than common sense. It’s a very simple concept. More people means more consumption. As more resources are consumed, fewer are available. Resources also become more scarce as environmental damage increases, because the damaged environment can’t produce as many resources. This resource scarcity causes a number of problems. If there isn’t enough food, people go hungry. If there isn’t enough water, people are thirsty. If jobs are scarce, people are unemployed. And if money is scarce, people fall into poverty. The way people respond to scarcity also causes problems. We work the environment even harder to obtain resources, and do even more damage. Sometimes we refuse to share with those of a different race, religion, class, or gender. (In some cultures, when food is scarce, males are fed and females go hungry.) When scarcity is acute, people may be forced to migrate in search of food, farmland, employment, or whatever resources they need. In some situations, they may revolt against the government, begin “ethnic cleansing,” or go to war against their neighbors to obtain additiona...