Overpopulation is a threatening issue

By Eason Zhou '24

In 2022, the global population is close to 7.6 billion, and more and more people live on the Earth, which has a great impact on the Earth's ecological environment. Problems come one after another. If they are not solved in time, it will be a great problem for human survival.
Overpopulation can be caused by increased birth rates, reduced mortality, influx of immigrants, unsustainable biota or depletion of resources.
Some research shows that it is predicted that the world population will continue to grow, reaching 9 billion by 2040, and some forecasts believe that the population will reach 11 billion by 2050. By 2100, the population will reach 15 billion. The current residence of human beings is limited. With the growth of population, cities or villages or towns will become more and more crowded. 
In 1800, only 3% of the world's population lived in cities, compared with 47% at the end of the 20th century. In 1950, 83 cities had a resident population of more than 1 million; But by 2007, there were 468 urban agglomerations with more than 1 million people.
As human settlements become more and more crowded, humans will expand their settlements, but the area they can use is also limited. While human beings expand their settlements, they will also occupy the settlements of other creatures.
This is only one of the most direct problems for the world. Other attendant problems include insufficient water supply, accelerated consumption of non-renewable resources, more serious pollution, land desertification, new epidemics and inflation. One of the most serious and well-known problems is global warming caused by changing the composition of the atmosphere.
Education and control is one of the effective ways to limit overpopulation. Worldwide, 40% of pregnancies are unwanted caused by improper contraception. In some countries where sex education is not developed, the lack of knowledge will lead to such things that do not need to affect the body and mind. Therefore, universal sex education is a very important thing. In terms of control, for example, China will have corresponding laws to limit the number of births. Some countries even force families with a certain number of children to sterilize.
With the continuous development, more culture and technology have become people's eyes. Some incredible and even strange behaviors can alleviate overpopulation, such as suicide, homicide, human voluntary extinction movement, family planning, sterilization, self-confinement, and even war, which can lessen the problem of overpopulation in the world. But we do not advocate for or even advertise this kind of thing.
 Space migration has always been a human dream. But so far, no space colony has been established. These behaviors have to face a series of challenges, and alleviating overpopulation is a difficult process.
We should seize the time to let people know the harm caused by overpopulation, so that they can realize the seriousness of the problem.
Overpopulation not only affects human life, but also affects the lives of other organisms, even biodiversity.
 Human beings need to be responsible for themselves and other creatures. 
We can limit the number of families that can have children, reduce unavoidable pollution, and promote measures such as public transportation or planting trees to solve the overpopulation and a series of problems it brings.