OVERPOPULATION

1. OVERPOPULATION PRESENTED BY: Kacy Lopez Kristina Shepard Sandy Sheldon Kyra McTighe

2. A Definition of Overpopulation • Overpopulation is a term that refers to a condition in which the density enlarges to a limit that provokes the environmental deterioration, a drop in the quality of life, or a population collapse.

3. Impacts of Overpopulation • Grain Production • Falling since 1950 • Cropland, Irrigation, and Crop Yield are all Falling • Cropland • Shrunk by 50% between 1960 & 1998 • Further 70% loss by 2050

4. Impacts of Overpopulation • Fresh Water • 1 Billion People Will Be Living In Countries Facing Water Scarcity in 2050 • Substantial Cutbacks in Irrigation Water will be Needed • Oceanic Fish Catch • 1988: 17.2 Kilograms of Oceanic Catch/Person • 2050: 9.9 Kilograms of Oceanic Catch/Person

5. Impacts of Overpopulation • Meat Production • An Estimated 37% of World Grain Harvest is Used to Feed Livestock • Total Meat Consumption will Rise from 211 Million Tons to 513 Million Tons • Further Pressure on Grain Supply • Natural Recreation Areas • Threatened to be Eliminated Due to Human Encroachment

6. Impacts of Overpopulation • Forests • 75% of the Loss of Global Forests has Occurred in the 20th century • Loss of Forests Lead to a Loss of: • Habitat • Carbon Storage; Which Regulates Climate • Erosion Control • Regulation of Rainfall

7. Impacts of Overpopulation • Biodiversity • Species Loss is 100 to 1,000 Times the Natural Rate • Climate Change • Mainly Due to Fossil Fuel Burning • Emissions From Developing Countries will Quadruple Over the next ½ Century • Emissions From industrial Countries will Increase by 30%

8. Impacts of Overpopulation • Energy • Demand for Energy Grew Twice as Fast as Population Over the Last 50 Years • Asia’s Energy Consumption is Expected to Grow 361%; Population will Only Grow 50% • Waste • Even in Countries Where Population is Stable, the Flow of Waste Continues to Increase

9. Easter Island

10. Easter Island • The remote Easter Island lies 2,350 miles west of Chile, in the South Pacific. • Judging from it’s mild climate and fertile volcanic soils, the island should have been a paradise, but more resembled a barren wasteland when “discovered” in 1722 by Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen. • What he found was 2000 people etching out a miserable existence on an island with no trees and few bushes more than a meter tall.

11. Easter Island • With no trees, the people couldn’t build seaworthy canoes in which to fish the ocean. This also left them without building materials or firewood. No animals occupied the island but chickens, rats, and a few insects, and their gardens barely provided food for subsistence. ,

12. Easter Island • And yet, scattered along the coastline were hundreds of immense stone heads, known as “moai”, some of which were as tall as 30 meters, weighing more than 200 metric tons. • What had happened to the larger and more advanced civilization that must have created these?

14. Easter Island • Until about 1500 years ago, the island had been covered with a lush tropical forest and the soil was deep and fertile. Polynesian people arrived on the island around 400 AD from the Marquesas islands. The early settler’s diet consisted of mainly porpoises, land-nesting seabirds and garden vegetables. • These people called themselves the Rapa Nui. In addition to the moai, this rich culture possessed the Rongorongo script, the only written language in Oceania.

15. Their populations soared and reached possibly as much as 20,000 on an island only about 64 square miles in size. At their peak, they far exceeded the capabilities of the small island’s ecosystem. • The construction of the moai was for religious purposes. They faced inland, meant to guard the islanders. • Moai construction became competitive between rivaling tribes, each trying to make a larger statue. This only fueled deforestation as more and more trees were needed for moai transport.

17. By 1400 AD the forest was completely cut down for firewood, houses, canoes and, not the least of which, rollers for transporting their massive statues. Without protective forest cover, soil was eroded and washed off steep hillsides. Springs and streams dried up. Summer droughts made garden’s less productive. Land birds became extinct while seabirds no longer nested on the island. Without canoes, the people could not fish. Statues at this time show sunken cheeks and visible ribs, suggesting starvation. Easter Island

18. At this point chaos and warfare seem to have racked the denuded island. The people were reduced to cannibalism as their population dropped by 90 percent. The few remaining people cowered in caves. The statues that were once the symbols of life and strength were thrown down and broken. Easter Island

19. Easter Island • Why didn’t these people control their population and conserve their resources? • What were the islanders’ thoughts as they cut down the last trees, effectively stranding themselves? • Does the demise of this population have a lesson for us?

20. Bangladesh

21. Location Bangladesh is located in South Asia with a population of 200 million people. That’s 2/3 of the United States population living in a place the size of Wisconsin!

22. It has the longest delta area in the world which promotes mass trade among foreign markets. • With the amount of trading that occurs here one would think many of its inhabitants would live comfortably, but this is not the case.

23. 1970 and 1991 Tsunamis It was rumored that the Tsunami which hit Southeast Asia this year was the worst natural disaster ever. Sadly, it was not. • In 1970 a cyclone caused a tsunami which directly hit the coast of Bangladesh killing over 500,000 people • In 1991 a Tsunami hit the coast again killing another 138,000 people. • The 2005 Tsunami only killed about 200,000 people in total and about 75,000 were from Bangladesh. • The loss of life would not have been as severe if overpopulation weren’t such a problem along the coasts. • Many of Bangladesh’s residents live on, or near, the coast for easy, and close, access to water and trade.

24. Family size • Housing • Bad transportation system • Unemployment/poverty/famine • Disease/Poor water quality Main Causes of Overpopulation in Bangladesh

25. Family Size • The average Bangladeshi family consists of 1 father, 1-6 mothers, and 3-50 children • Bangladeshi women have an average of 4.23 children during their lifetime. • Contraceptives have been introduced, but have been widely rejected by the men of families due to their Islamic faith.

26. Lack of Housing Large families usually live in one room shacks or with other families in a communal house. Up to 70 people may all live in the same house. **Space equivalent: It’s like 12 people living in a double room.

27. Transportation • Road crashes – Medical/funeral expenses, head of household unemployment • Crowded public transportation dangers: • Buses &Trains: falls,fire,violence

28. BUSES A typical double bus in Bangladesh which carries up to 100 people. A bus fire which killed 20 people and injured 13 others.

29. Trains You can see the risk in taking the train to work, but people need to earn money to support their large families at home.

30. Mass unemployment : not enough jobs for working people leads to a lack of resources and food in the family unit. Famine caused by a lack of rainfall and fertile land occurs often and has a big impact Many children starve as a result every year. Poverty

31. Disease and Healthcare Many diseases run ramped throughout Bangladesh due to close living quarters and inevitable person to person contact. The worse diseases currently affecting Bangladesh are Diarrheal disease and Cholera. Diarrheal disease is caused by the consumption of unsanitary water. Seasonal flooding causes rivers to overflow and run through the streets of larger cities in Bangladesh. During this time various bacteria, wastes, and microorganisms are accumulated. The water is then carried to smaller villages where there is increased poverty. The majority of residents in Bangladesh cannot afford bottled water, nor do small towns have ways in which to treat and purify the water before it is drunk. Cholera is a direct result of the aforementioned water contamination. These bacteria attach to plankton and are ingested. This causes diarrhea, vomiting, fever, and sometimes death if not treated. A good thing about this is that it is self-limiting because people develop immunity after being infected more than once.

32. US AID • Reduce fertility through contraceptives. • save the lives of children through immunization and the early identification and treatment of respiratory infections,diarrheal diseases, and Cholera; • save the lives of mothers through prenatal and postnatal care and tetanus immunization; • provide other reproductive health care to men, women and adolescents; and • provide health information related to all of these health concerns

33. Overpopulation in India

34. India • The land area of India is 329 million square kilometers (1/4 the size of the U.S.) • It has a population of over 950 million people • In 1998 the growth rate was 1.86%, down from 2.2% in the 1980's. • The country has a large young population of 240 million in the 10-24 age group. • Because of this, the population will continue to grow, adding 18 million people a year

35. Half of its people live on less than $1 a day. • 53% of children under five are malnourished; • 71% have no access to sanitation; • 37% have no access to safe water • 20% of the world's maternal deaths and 25% of its child deaths occur in India. • Due to these alarming numbers, in the late 1970’s Prime Minister Indira Gandhi allowed for people to be forcibly sterilized. • This frightened people into no longer dealing with a population policy at all for decades. • Despite this, India's fertility rate has dropped in from 6 to 3.4 children per woman in the last 50 years.

36. More Problems Due to Overpopulation • Due to population pressures, India is running out of its natural resources. • Each year, water tables are dropping 3.3 feet to 9.9 feet. • This results in less water for irrigation, thus cutting India's grain harvest by one-fourth and increasing hunger and malnutrition. • Because of human settlements and farming, the forests in India are also diminishing. Wood fuel is disappearing.

37. Sanitation problems as a Result… • About 80% of deadly diseases in India occur due to contaminated drinking water by human waste. • Thus resulting in “poor sanitation and inadequate sewage disposal” being the country’s largest health issues. • Of over 950 million people, less than 30% have bathrooms in their homes. • Many relieve themselves in the open. • Of the country’s 4,000 cities, only 250 have sewer systems • Most of them don’t even have proper treatment plans • In cities, thousands of people could use the same toilet each day, without proper sanitation.

38. Solutions? • In 1998 India participated in the World Health Organization (WHO) in an attempt to eliminate polio by the year 2000. • The government joined in private organizations to add bathrooms to homes. • Due to current population rates and the rate of construction, it would take 200 years for every Indian to have access to a toilet. • The World Bank funded $300 million for the city of Bombay to treat 60% of its sewage as well as build public toilets for 1 million “slum dwellers.”