Overpopulation affects the environment - Research Paper Example

he population has effected the environment through two agents: the increasing population itself, and the advances in technology that this population has brought with itself (Stancheva). However, currently both the problems have little hope of being tackled, so that the environment continues to be adversely effected. For this purpose, and in this paper, it is assumed that the problem of overpopulation is a fixed entity, and the only variable that can be modified is the way the environment is handled through lifestyle and habits of the general population.

This paper, therefore, purports to present some of the problems that are inflicted on the environment, and the way they can be properly handled by appropriate changes in the lifestyle. The most dire issue related to overpopulation is that of fresh water supply (Stancheva). According to the United Nations, the supply per capita has decreased by one third in the past year (Stancheva). It is the worst in the developing and the underdeveloped countries of Asia, Africa, and South America, coinciding with the increase in the population in these areas (Stancheva).

Nevertheless, the developed countries and the urban areas are also not prevented from this crisis (Stancheva); with the increase in population in the urban areas due to migration, the demand for fresh water has increased while the supplies either remain constant or have decreased. A case in point is Beijing (Stancheva). Another problem related to water is its pollution. Again, it is worst in the underdeveloped countries, where 95% of the sewage, especially from factories, is dumped into the water system untreated, which ultimately makes its way into the ocean (Stancheva).

Combined with over-fishing, which results in the