Nathan Ludwig

Nathan Ludwig

There are 5.3 billion people currently living on our planet and this number is
expected to double within the next 40 years.1   Of the world’s 5.3 billion people 4.1
billion live in less developed nations, which also have higher growth rates than more
developed countries.2   Less developed nations currently make up 77% of the world’s
population and this number is expected to increase to 83% by 2025.3   This means
more people, living poor.   In the time it has taken you to read this far, the number of
people living on this planet has increased by 504.

Overpopulation is becoming an increasingly serious problem as the space on
our planet becomes more crowded and our limited resources are used up.
Overpopulation causes famine, environmental damage, and plagues.   Overpopulation is
caused by many factors, but mainly poverty.   Overpopulation is a difficult problem to
solve, but it can be reduced through education and birth control.

Historical Perspective

Scientists estimate that human beings first made their appearance on earth
100,000 years ago.5   For the greater part of this time they lived very primitive lives,
and growth in population was very gradual.   The human birth rate was high, but high
death rates kept the population under control.   Infants had high mortality rates, people
were lucky to survive childhood, and those who lived to adulthood died much sooner
than people of the 20th century.6   High death rates were caused by wars, famine and
malnutrition, but mostly disease.   Some diseases had devastating effects on the
population, like the bubonic plague, or the Black death, which killed more than one in
every four people in fourteenth century Europe.7

For thousands of years the population grew slowly until the birth of Christ.
Between the birth of Christ and 1500, the world population doubled with a rate of
increase of about 0.1% per year.8   There were some rapid growths in the population
before the 1700s, but most were...