Threats to Sustainable Development - Coursework Example

Threats to Sustainable Development: Overpopulation Threats to Sustainable Development: Overpopulation Introduction In October 2011, United Nations statistics showed that the global population had officially reached the 7 billion mark. Currently, the global population stands at almost 7.3 billion and is expected to grow to 9 billion by 2050 (Goldin, 2014). Historically, population growth has always been one of mankind’s major conundrums. However, overpopulation, rather than population growth, attracts most concern because its impacts are more adverse. The biggest problem associated with overpopulation is its unmanageability, which spawns numerous other issues affiliated with population growth. This paper will examine the subject of overpopulation and its economic, social, and environmental impacts. Discussion The economic, social, and environmental impacts of overpopulation are interrelated, and this is because together, the three aspects define the quality of life. Economically, overpopulation exerts pressure on economic structures and reduces the options available to policymakers. It is worth noting that governments have budgets that they have to adhere to cater to the needs of citizens. In this regard, governments are comparable to households (Goldin, 2014). If a family of three suddenly expands to six and the breadwinner’s income remains the same, the family will feel the strain of the seven new members. For economic growth to be sustainable, production must be consistent. The three factors of production (land, labor, capital) can only be fully exploited if population growth is manageable. Overpopulation makes the factors of production scarce, and this significantly reduces the production capacity of both governments and entrepreneurs. When these factors become too scarce, other alternatives must be pursued to sustain economic growth. For example, in developing countries, intensive industrialisation meant that overreliance on land was avoided. By adopting market-based and service-based economic policies, industrialised countries created economic opportunities for their citizens in financial sectors and factories rather than subsistence farming and land-based production processes. Overpopulation reduces the productivity of individuals and, as it worsens, reduces their economic potential (Kurtovic, 2014). Overpopulation increases unemployment, denying people the opportunity to become productive and creating a large population of dependent people. The key to economic growth is individual capability, and this is why developed nations have more stable economies than developing countries. When a country is overpopulated, employed people are forced to undertake more responsibilities that limit their investment potential. While labour is vital to economic growth, its contribution is muted when there is overpopulation. In such cases, one employment opportunity may be sought by hundreds of people, yet only one candidate will be hired. This leaves scores of people who, because of limited employment opportunity, look up to the government for assistance. Consequently, instead of national budgets going towards developing industries and economic sectors, they are channeled towards caring for the underprivileged (Harrison, 2013). It is not a coincidence that some of the richest countries in the world also have some of the lowest population densities. On the other hand, the poorest countries have, in general, high population densities. It is also not a coincidence that overpopulated countries also have some of the highest migration rates in the world. The loss of valuable skills is one of the negative effects of overpopulation. As employment opportunities become limited, professionals who are unable to secure gainful employment in their countries of birth move to other nations where they can be productive. Cheap labour becomes expensive, and the government is forced to spend a large percentage of its budget on providing for the population instead of investing in areas like security and research. When a population is manageable and productive, governments, self-sufficiency is achieved (Solomon, 2014). On the other hand, overpopulation reduces productivity and makes countries reliant on aid. Finally, on the economic front, overpopulation widens the gap between the rich and the poor, leading to huge disparities in wages and standards of living. Scholars theorise that when a population is manageable, the leadership is likely to develop economic policies to benefit everybody (Goldin, 2014). However, when a country is overpopulated, the ruling class will be inclined to bar large sections of the population from benefiting economically, thus concentrating wealth in the hands of a few elite. Socially, overpopulation puts enormous pressure on social amenities and creates strife. For example, the patient-doctor ratio should be favorable enough to allow all members of a population to receive medical care (Goldin, 2014). In overpopulated countries, millions of people are involuntarily denied access to healthcare because the available facilities cannot serve everybody. It is important to clarify that while it is impossible for countries with manageable populations to achieve the desired levels of social development, it is entirely feasible to prevent social underdevelopment (Goldin, 2014). Overpopulation limits food sources and exposes people to hunger and starvation. It is difficult for governments to expand food production when the population is too large to be managed. This explains why, in a country like China, desperate measures like the one-child policy have been used to bring the population under control. In the late 1970s, the rate of China’s population growth was so high that the country could not provide the most basic services to its citizens. Overpopulation had stymied its economic growth because the young country was already experiencing a population explosion before it could come into its own. By limiting the availability of social amenities, overpopulation leads to an increase in crime rates. Crime is a way for the underprivileged to obtain the social utilities that their social classes bar them from accessing (Ness & Ciment, 2014). Overpopulation has also been cited as a source of social tension. Limited resources and social amenities lead to feelings of discontent. Over time, personal predicaments evolve into group problems and create the “us versus them” mentality (Goldin, 2014). Social theory shows that people are always quick to seek others who share their experiences and then single out those who they believe are responsible for their situations. This is sometimes evident in the sociopolitical dynamics of some countries, where political power is equated to social development. In countries with manageable populations, social strife is easy to prevent and even easier to manage. For example, in war-torn countries, the ease with which minors join militant groups to fight for causes they barely understand is motivated by a belief that war is a solution to social problems (Hardyman, 2014). The social pressures created by overpopulation increase vulnerability to pandemics and endemics. For example, in countries where overpopulation is a major challenge, poor hygiene is rampant. This makes the emergence and spread of diseases and their subsequent development into pandemics extremely easy. In overpopulated areas, settlement is unplanned, and many people are susceptible to natural disasters like earthquakes and landslides. Due to limited housing, scores of people have no option than to live in areas that would normally be uninhabited. Unlike the social and economic impacts of overpopulation, which have always been researched, the environmental impact only started getting a lot of attention from the mid 20th century. Currently, however, it ranks as one of the biggest concerns for entities tasked with population management. Ideally, people are supposed to coexist with the environment. Natural resources like land, for example, are nonrenewable and must be managed to ensure equal distribution and sustainability (Holdsworth et al., 2014). Natural vegetation (e.g., forests and swamps) are meant to be ecosystems for flora and fauna. Overpopulation forces humans to destroy the environment to satisfy unmet social and economic needs (e.g., food and land). Today, people do not think twice about encroaching into wildlife territory to obtain resources. In fact, some wild animals are now consumed as food while those that are sources food are hunted indiscriminately. For example, the ecological balance of the Great Barrier Reef has been altered because of overfishing. The people living in the ecosystem, as well as commercial fishing firms that can no longer fish in their usual spots, are blatantly depleting the population of bluefin tuna that are the apex predators in the ecosystem of the Great Barrier Reef. Bluefin tuna feed on small fish known as grazers (Delaney & Madigan, 2014). The grazers, in turn, feed on microorganisms like algae. Since the bluefin tuna have been overfished until their population has significantly declined, the population of the grazers has increased exponentially. Ultimately, the grazers have been forced to eat more algae than before to survive, causing the algae to reduce considerably. Since the reef thrives on algae, it has started “dying” gradually, endangering the existence of other plant and animal species (Gulliver & Slow, 2014). The genesis of the problem, however, is overpopulation. Previously, when the population was manageable, people did not deem it necessary to fish in the Great Barrier Reef. Currently, it is a major source of food for thousands of people and is likely to continue declining until another natural ecosystem is identified for exploitation and consigned to the same fate. Conclusion Overpopulation is currently one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century. In fact, so dire is the situation that it has been deemed as a looming disaster in some parts of the world. This shows that it has the potential to destabilise many other systems and greatly limit personal, societal, and national development. The effects of overpopulation are no longer restricted to national boundaries because, as a result of globalisation, social pressure in one continent directly and indirectly affects the social conditions in other continents. Urgent measures are needed to arrest population growth and avoid the adverse effects of overpopulation. 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