Overpopulation

Shuo Feng

Overpopulation

As the population in an area with too many people, its resource is not enough for their consumptions. The relationship between humans and the environment is not balanced, because the population is more than the earth capacity of them. The current world population is more than 7.3 billion. Scientists predict that the population will reach 9 billion in 40 years. The top three countries with the highest population are China, India and America.

Over population has different reasons. The one of the factors is lack of birth control education that would lead to high fertility rate. In many undeveloped countries like Africa, women do not have birth control to prevent accidental pregnancy. As a result, they gave birth to the child after they are pregnant. Another reason is that people now live longer and there is a better quality of life and advanced medical treatment that can decrease the mortality rate. In addition, the impact of immigration on the local population will increase the amount of people.

The population has affected many aspects of our ecosystem. First of all, biodiversity is declining. With the competition for resources, animal use less resources than they need. This will cause species extinction on earth. The extinction will be 1000 times faster than today's typical speed of history. This is mainly because of rapid population growth.

 

Secondly, much of the population will affect the ecological footprint. With the increase of population, people consume more energy and resources than ever before. The planet is not the production of these needs as we want. Humans will eventually use all of the resources, because the earth is not at the speed of itself. In addition, overpopulation is the impact of the environment. Chemical waste from factories and toxic substances into the water near the pollution they supply. As a result, it kills fish and endangers people's health.

I come from Beijing, China. Most of the provinces are as busy as New York City, especially in large city, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. People from other districts like to move to a big city. However, as a native of the city, I don't like this phenomenon. This can increase the difficulty of searching work, inflation, as well as the competition and traffic control. Resources are scarce, if more people need more resources will be added. When more and more people want to move in, the more difficult they will find to adapt to the society.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/eye/overpopulation/effect.html

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/09/25/overpopulation.overview/index.html

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/overpopulation/index.html

http://geojoedr.tripod.com/id3.html

The Western North Pacific Gray Whale (Shannon Muldowney)

              In the 1970s, it was believed that western North Pacific gray whales had gone extinct.  Later in the 1990s, there was a small group of the western North Pacific gray whales discovered off of Sakhalin Island in Russia.  Scientists have monitored the population of the western North Pacific gray whales since the 1990s.  Of the small population, scientists from the United States and Russia selected three of the whales to monitor.  Satellite-monitored tags did the monitoring.  The scientists got surprising results from the tracking, which resulted in the longest migration of a mammal ever documented.  The tracked whales had travelled a total of 14,000 miles.

Pictured above is a western North Pacific gray whale.
Credit: Photograph by Craig Hayslip

            Not only was the length of the trip surprising to the scientists, but because of the satellite-monitored tags, it was also discovered that the endangered western North Pacific gray whales had interacted with the eastern gray whales along the way.  There has been debate about whether or not the western and eastern gray whales are separate species.  If it is found to be true that they are the same species, the chances of the recovery of the western gray whale significantly increases.  Photograph comparisons were used for identifying and comparing the two types of whales.  Scientists have found pictures of gray whales from areas like Mexico that match pictures of the western gray whales from Russia.

            In our class, we have spent a lot of time discussing endangered and extinct species.  It is amazing that there is so much hope for a species that was believed to be extinct forty-five years ago.  We have also discussed the evolution of species.  If the western gray whales reproduce with the eastern gray whales, there is the possibility that there will be genetic changes to both the western and eastern gray whales.

            I think that it is encouraging and exciting that the western North Pacific gray whales crossed paths with the eastern gray whales.  The eastern gray whale population has fully recovered from their risk of endangerment.  Since they have fully recovered and the western gray whales interact with them, it gives hope for a stronger recovery for the western North Pacific gray whales.

Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Overfishing (Ricky Plasencia)

Over time fish populations have decreased significantly due to overfishing. Overfishing is simply as it sounds. Overfishing is when the quantity of fish is cultivated at a rate where fishes are not given enough time to replenish. These methods of fishing are unsustainable for oceans because it exceeds the capacity of fishing. Fishing fleets are catching fishes two to three times more than what oceans can sustainably support. As a result of this, many fishes are now labeled as endangered species. This includes many forms of salmons and tunas. The issue of overfishing is not only impacting creatures that humans consume. Many dolphins and seals are becoming endangered.

One way of solving this issue is to clearly slow down on the fishing. Fishes are caught at an alarming rate on a daily basis. In all reality, all of humanity will not eat the amounts of fish that are caught. This means that we can apply the brakes a little when it comes to fishing. We are slowly reaching the point where all of our previous actions can’t be reversed, but we are not there yet. The effects of overfishing are still reversible but humanity must act fast if wants to reach a level of sustainability for fishes. Fishermen must learn to safely catch fishes without reaching the point where its harmful. This can be achieved but people must first become consciously aware of the situation. The change can be made, it just takes a great amount of effort to achieve it.

Sources:

http://overfishing.org/

http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/esa/listed.htm

Image: WorldWildLife.org