Nicole M. New Jersey

Overpopulation

Our future president should make the general public aware of this impending issue and it's effects on our environment.

Dear Future President,

Overpopulation has recently become the backbone of all major environmental issues worldwide.Overpopulation,as you may know,is referred to as an undesirable state where the amount of people on Earth exceed our food,water,shelter and space available by drastic amounts.Although it doesn't seem that big of an issue to dwell upon,environmentalists predict that if nothing is done to solve this obstruction,it is predicted to cause a pandemic of famine,overcrowding, disease, changing of climate patterns,and so much more.Currently,different reliable estimates state that the carrying capacity on Earth is somewhere between 4 billion to 16 billion people, depending on who you ask.The current population (although it is changing every second) is some where around 7,400,000,000 people.So theoretically speaking, we may have passed the healthy limit already by a couple of billion people.

Over an estimated 360,000 people are born every day, compared to the death rate of only 151,600 each day, meaning the population is, for the vast majority of the time, significantly increasing.It was not always this way, however.Up until around 50 years ago, the birth rate and the death rate were able to rather evenly balance each other out, and Overpopulation was almost unheard of.However,thanks to recent medical advances in treatment and technology such as the artificial heart,MRI'S and more,the death rate has begun to slowly decrease throughout the years,allowing more people to live longer, healthier lives.This is where the problem sprung to life, to develop in to an overwhelmingly serious conflict worldwide.Following these small joyous acts,actions were made that continuously  to this day, increase our worldwide population.For example, in numerous countries,such as Japan,families would actually be rewarded for having more children.Japan's leaders propose offering new parents payments each month, totaling up to about $3,300 a year for every new child born up until the age of 15.In other countries such as the U.S.A, welfare is given to those families with several children and low income, as if to gift families for having 8 or more children?

If we don't attempt to solve this growing occurrence, many things can happen,and none of them can be even remotely considered positive, towards our environment as well as our personal lives.Overpopulation is a very severe example of a cause and effect situation.For one thing, overpopulation causes more people to need more natural resources, such as food water, and etc.The Earth can only produce so much.Without the excess population, the food and water supply are fairly scarce already.When more people need more resources, many problems rise to the occasion.For example, when people require more food and shelter,people are tearing trees down through deforestation to create more space for farms,plantations,homes and cities.They are also hunting and killing,as well as creating factory farms so that we may have the food we desire.Deforestation and Animal rights are a large problem within itself, and Overpopulation is causing more and more of this.Another effect of overpopulation on our planet includes the fact that the more people there are,the more people need resources such as coal,oil, and petroleum to heat their homes and fuel their cars, as well as construct different items.The burning of coal,oil,and petroleum,cause carbon and other greenhouse gasses to be released into the air. Greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere is what drives and causes global warming and climate change,which are two very popular and dangerous subjects in the present day.Overpopulation is what causes and creates many important impending environmental issues across the globe.The Global warming and climate change described can lead to tragedies such as a loss of Biodiversity,the melting of the polar ice caps leading to issues such as animal endangerment,and the changing of climate patterns.

Clearly,Overpopulation certainly is an issue impacting our entire planet,and it is a clear indication that something must be done.The solution isn't rocket science,though. Here are somethings we hope you, Mr./Mrs Future president, can do to solve or prevent the growing of this impending problem.

We ask that you promote family planning, and institute a policy/policies that controls the growing population.A good way to do this is through an act similar to China's older One child policy.Through this, the act states that it is required that every family only have one child,unless both parents are only children;Then you may have two children,in order to control the rapidly increasing population in the world.They have recently sympathetically changed it to two children, and rightly so.

We also ask that you allow the people of our country,excluding no one , (whether it be via social media, work or school environments and etc.),become aware of the growing issue of overpopulation, and the deadly consequences it can bring,because as if right now, a good amount of the population doesn't have too much background to the situation.Make the general public aware of the issue.

Another way to reduce the current population,instead of encouraging families to give birth to more children,the government should either drastically reduce or stop incentives that encourage larger families.It is a very positive idea to end all policies that reward families with cash based on how many children they have.

In conclusion, we simply ask that our future president, whoever you may be, to assist and acknowledge the growing population of our country, as well as every other country on the planet. The overcrowding, depletion of natural resources, and environmental deterioration should be a clear eye opener to the horrid effects of Overpopulation.I thank you for your time Mr or Mrs.President, and I hope you can solve this matter.

 -Nicole M.