On November 15th, 2022, we officially reached a world population of 8 billion. But is that a good thing? For years we have been worried about what overpopulation can do to our planet and resources. With the population growing by the second, should we be scared for the future?
With the growing population, UN member Antonio Guterres stated, “It is a reminder of our shared responsibility to care for our planet and a moment to reflect on where we still fall short of our commitments to one another." The UN has estimated that "the global population is growing at its slowest rate since 1950, having fallen under 1 percent in 2020. The latest projections by the United Nations suggest that the world’s population could grow to around 8.5 billion in 2030 and 9.7 billion in 2050. It is projected to reach a peak of around 10.4 billion people during the 2080s and to remain at that level until 2100."
Cons:
- Food. How are we supposed to feed all of these new people? The world isn't growing, we only have so much land to farm or use for manufacturing.
- Diseases. Scientists have proven that more than half of the infectious diseases that humans contract can become deadlier because of climate change. More people, more pollution, more climate change. More people also means that diseases can be spread easier.
- Temperatures. Rising temperatures due to climate change can also affect the population in a negative way. It can cause droughts, which cause food and water shortages. It can also cause long-term damage to individuals.
- Resources. The more people, the more resources that we need to use.
Pros:
- It can cause migration, allowing the population to spread out more evenly.
- Technology will get better to allow for an easier life.
There weren't very many pros I could find for the 8 billion people.
What do you think?
Is the increase good or bad?
Do you want more people?
Replies
I think population growth is bad for the environment. It's just more pollution in the air and the pollution causes animals to go extent. it's just not good but what can we do about it? nothing we can't do anything about it. This is just how it is.
I think there are many pros and cons to having 8 billion people in the world. I don't think that we are going to grow much more though. It took us a while to get from 7 billion people to 8 billion. And with people having less children, we won't grow much more.
I think that the population growth of 8 billion could be good or bad. Reasons it is good is that some parts of the world everyone is staying healthy and people are living longer. The reason the populations in bad, is the world isn't getting any smaller so the world is filling up.
I think that population growth is bad because it could cause a lot of problems in the near future because it could increase the growth of climate change and that is already a problem in itself. As you said after a while there will be a large lack of resources and causing food and water shortages with could lead to people dying from dehydration or malnutrition. So no I don’t think it would be safe for this planet to gain any more people.
I agree, the population growing will just make the problems we have worse, I don't think it is safe either, especially for future generations.
If you look at it Honestly you cant say how meny kids you can and can't have. I think the growth is good and us as humans can adapt to any change it throws at us. Most familys you see anyway only have up to 4 kids or less. If the population was having like 5 to 7 kids then I would worry more but anymore that is really unlikely because back in the day they only had that meany kids because they would need help on the farms and things like that.
I understand where you are coming from, but there is also only so much we can adapt too. We can't just make more land for people to live on or create more farmland to grow crops on. Expecting to adapt to those things is unreasonable.
I think that the population growth is good. I don't know how you would expect us to stop the growing population as there is almost no way you could put a law on the number of children a person has. I think the challenges we face with the growing population are going to be easily overcome.
I think that it can be seen good and back but I think that it is good. Elon Musk said that the thing that would bring the world down is underpopulation. Family's are having 1 or 2 kids rather than the old days when they would have 5 or 6. I think that it can be seen good or bad but I think it is good for the time being.
I don't want the world to be underpopulated of course. But I don't want it to be overpopulated. There is research showing the catastrophic damage already being done to our planet, all by humans. Imagine the damage with billions more.
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