Our planet can support about 2 billion people with necessary facilities. In 1950, the world population was 2.5 billion. Farmers adopted organic farming all over the world. There was no problem like pollution of soil, water and environment, degradation of soil fertility, and global warming, etc. After 1950, the population grew rapidly, so it became necessary to use fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, and hormones to produce sufficient food to cope with the increasing population. In 2024, the population will reach 8 billion and there are insufficient resources to sustain their lives. Now water, soil, and the ecosystem is polluted, soil is degraded, and the populations of predators, parasites and pollinators has decreased significantly. We are facing problems in schooling, public health, water, sanitation, housing, employment and poverty. Huge populations need more numbers of vehicles and other facilities which lead to global warming. Glaciers have started melting and the sea level is rising. New viruses may be very dangerous, which may appear with the melting of glaciers.
For decades, scientists have warned of the consequences of overpopulation on the environment and climate change. Having 8 billion people now will increase their reliance on the Earth’s resources inevitably adding pressure on the already stressed and highly over exploited ecosystem. Politicians of all countries did not manage the population at required levels as a huge population is in the interest of politicians and big corporates. It is easy to control the poor population by the politicians and huge populations create big markets for corporates. In 2019, a UN report found that 1 million species are now threatened with extinction, and only one quarter of the land and one third of marine areas remain relatively undisturbed by human activities. The vertebrate wildlife population has declined by an average of 69% between 1970 and 2018. During that time, the human population doubled. Unsustainable burning of fossil fuels in wealthy countries is already responsible for the climate crisis. The combination of climate change and population growth is also a major threat to natural resources as well as food and clean water supplies.
A more crowded world increases the risk of diseases transmission and the emergence of new viruses with pandemic potential. All recent pandemics including SARS, Ebola, bird and swine flu and COVID-19 were zoonotic. Education and healthcare became very expensive. It is difficult for poor people to get proper timely medical treatment and to get higher education in many countries. We must build a planet that enables everyone to live their lives freely, sustainably, and with dignity. There should be no fear of food, pollution, lack of healthcare, proper education, housing, employment, and invasion. Necessary facilities should be available to live happily and peacefully.
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