Overpopulation and the Impact on the Environment

Environmental pollution
 
The environmental system is overloaded and the humanity’s footprint is breaking it down. 
Many nations sign the treaties on prevention of environmental pollution, but only few ratify them. 
Air and water pollution almost reached its peak, and breathing air or drinking water can cause 
disease (Stefoff 47). “The American Lung Association says that air pollution from automobile 
exhausts causes 30,000 deaths each year in the United States alone” (Stefoff 47). Further on, 
pollution of oceans takes place as people throughout the years treated ocean as a place of discharge 
for sewage and toxic materials. The waste materials come from urban areas that discharge waste 
into the waters, polluting the entire ecosystem, and their own inhabitants who reside at the 
seacoasts. “In 1991 more than half of the world’s population lived within 60 miles of a seacoast” 
(Stefoff 48). An increase in urban population will push urban development toward outer borders, 
and cities on the coast will expand as well, bringing more people to reside along the shores. 

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46 
Even though overpopulation is argued to be one of the main characteristics of 
environmental degradation, some scientists argue that with a lower rate of population the impact on 
the environment would be the same. A smaller number of people would not ensure an end to global 
warming and deforestation, as fewer people could still conduct “misguided or destructive policies 
of economic development and environmental mismanagement” (Stefoff 48-49). Nevertheless, the 
process of environmental degradation would take a slower pace and governments would have more 
time to take measures of prevention. Environmental issues of global ecosystem link experts in a 
“network of connections” where a solution to each question lies in primarily resolving the question 
of overpopulation (Stefoff 49).