Overpopulation

“The rich become richer and the poor become poorer is a cry heard throughout the whole civilized world.” Such are the words of Freidrich Schiller, a well-known German philosopher from the 1700’s. Though his words are over three hundred years old, they remain true to this day. The earth as it is today has changed in ways that people could never have imagined. While some parts of it march steadily into the realm of modernization and high technology, the rest of the world is left behind. In a world with both developed and developing countries, a person born into a developed country will naturally leave a much bigger environmental footprint. In the modern world, people have become accustomed to high living standards where electricity, automobiles, and other energy-consuming resources are practically taken for granted. Most of the people in the world could only dream of such privileges. The price for such extreme levels of energy use does not go unseen: the chemical emissions of industrialized countries are drastically greater than that of third-world countries. What comes with modernization is environmental destruction, and thus is unavoidable for those living in modern countries. Still, most attention regarding overpopulation is given to third-world countries. Because of the alarming rates of child mortality and other influences, inhabitants of these countries resort to having many children, children that they often cannot provide for. The overwhelming population of countries in poverty has depleted resources and resulted in unsuitable living conditions for many families. But all of these people put together could not amount to the amount of waste developed countries emit. Though they do not struggle with the inability to sustain its population, the toxic fumes released into the atmosphere daily quickly brings our earth closer to being unable to supply for any of us. Considering the long history of slavery and abuse that have been imposed on developing countries by the main industrial nations, it is apparent that these nations are in huge environmental, economic and social debt. The fact that less developed countries are suffering in poverty is partially due to the international economic order established by industrialized countries to fulfill their own purposes. With developing countries left with dilapidated living circumstances, most of the world’s pollution is due to the excessive consumption of energy in industrial countries. Though the rapid population increase in less developed countries is indeed an accelerator to overpopulation, in the end, the damage done to the environment is almost entirely caused by people in developed countries. Ultimately, global overpopulation is an issue that should be a massive concern to those living in modernized societies. Unless our lifestyle changes, overpopulation will soon desolate the earth – and it will be our fault. Carelessly polluting our planet while blaming overpopulation on countries with high birth rates will certainly lead to the destruction of earth and all of its inhabitants. But today, there remains hope. There is still time for humans to change themselves, to take action in conserving the environment. It is our planet that has nurtured us for so long, and it is certainly time for us to repay the favor.