Overpopulation: Weapon of Mass Destruction

Hawking has sound reason to worry about the growing population of Earth’s human inhabitants. Our numbers are increasing at rates unprecedented in history, adding our last billion people in a mere twelve years (“World”). None can say for sure what impact we will have on the planet that we call home, but one thing is for certain, the Earth has only so many resources, which we surely cannot survive without, and we are consuming them at an alarming and unsustainable rate. We will run out of resources, it’s simply a question of when.

One of the most important resources, one which does not usually spring to mind when natural resources are thought of, is space. The Earth is only so big, with only so much space for us to live, grow our food on, raise our animals on, and to move aro

In a crowded environment, disease has a much easier time spreading throughout a population. Public schools are a prime example of this: when one first-grader gets a cold, every first-grader is pretty much guaranteed to share in the sniffles. This problem is exacerbated in crowded areas by increased pollution. Every year more than twelve million people die of disease carried by dirty water alone (Hinrichsen). Not only does the water in such places become dangerous, but the more-concentrated mass of emissions from things such as automobiles creates air that is so polluted, you can actually see it. Worldwide, over one billion people, one sixth of the Earth’s population, suffer from dangerously high air-pollution levels, and up to 700,000 a year die from them (Hinrichsen). In Mexico City, the air pollution is so high that breathing it in on a regular basis has the same health effects as smoking three packs of cigarettes a day (Hinrichsen). It is so bad that they have a need for “fresh air booths” where you can spend fifteen minutes in air of breathable quality. Normally we would step outside for a breath of fresh air. In Mexico City, where there is a huge concentration of people, you have to go inside to get one.

Forests are essential to the well-being of the planet. As an article from International Wildlife observes, forests “absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, regulating climate. They anchor soils and prevent erosion. They regulate water flow and protect watersheds. And they provide habitat for countless species of plants and animals. Yet,” the article laments, “over the course of the past half century, this green mantle has been reduced to tattered remnants” (Hinrichsen).

Very soon, humans are going to have to face the consequences of our enormous population and its unrestrained consumption. This world simply ain’t big enough for the 6,322,116,080 of us. This number of people (as projected on October 6th, 2003 at 21:15:22 GMT by the U.S. Ce

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