Overpopulation takes place in nearly all periods of time. Overpopulation can be found in human overpopulation to animal overpopulation to microscopic overpopulation. Connecting issues of overpopulation to our modern day endeavors leads to the realization that the human population grew alongside the production boom of the Industrial Revolution. Overpopulation can happen to any species with enough resources. For example, the reindeer at St Matthew Island died due to overpopulation. There was an abundance of resources and no natural predators.
Overpopulation occurs due to a few factors. These factors include: a lack of natural predators, abundance of food/water resources, and a starting population large enough to continue to breed. No natural predators leads to an uncontrolled population, such as the reindeer population or human population, in which population can continue to grow, but not be kept steady. Using the example of St Matthew Island, resources were abundant due to few other competing animals; thus the reindeer grew, but as population kept increasing, resources fell causing reindeer starvation as less and less food became available. The introduced reindeer population began with 29 reindeer being released and when a controlled population was no longer maintained, in the span of two years, the population grew to an estimated 6000 before suffering a population crash leaving 42 reindeer left. Improper resource control be it food, water, space, etc can cause a population to destroy itself if not properly controlled such as the human population today.
Culturally, overpopulation destroys identity. As population grows so does a population’s needs in which one group takes from another group, in the process usually destroying part of the identity of the weaker group. Additionally, politically overpopulation can lead to inadequate policies in which focus is put more on benefiting a politician rather than a community putting a strain of resource distribution. There are historic examples such as St Matthew Island or current examples with China’s population exceeding 1 billion people which show that the issues overpopulation creates are not leaving anytime soon.
Klein, D. (n.d.). THE INTRODUCTION, INCREASE, AND CRASH OF REINDEER ON ST. MATTHEW ISLAND. Retrieved March 14, 2015, from http://dieoff.org/page80.htm
Overpopulation occurs due to a few factors. These factors include: a lack of natural predators, abundance of food/water resources, and a starting population large enough to continue to breed. No natural predators leads to an uncontrolled population, such as the reindeer population or human population, in which population can continue to grow, but not be kept steady. Using the example of St Matthew Island, resources were abundant due to few other competing animals; thus the reindeer grew, but as population kept increasing, resources fell causing reindeer starvation as less and less food became available. The introduced reindeer population began with 29 reindeer being released and when a controlled population was no longer maintained, in the span of two years, the population grew to an estimated 6000 before suffering a population crash leaving 42 reindeer left. Improper resource control be it food, water, space, etc can cause a population to destroy itself if not properly controlled such as the human population today.
Culturally, overpopulation destroys identity. As population grows so does a population’s needs in which one group takes from another group, in the process usually destroying part of the identity of the weaker group. Additionally, politically overpopulation can lead to inadequate policies in which focus is put more on benefiting a politician rather than a community putting a strain of resource distribution. There are historic examples such as St Matthew Island or current examples with China’s population exceeding 1 billion people which show that the issues overpopulation creates are not leaving anytime soon.
Klein, D. (n.d.). THE INTRODUCTION, INCREASE, AND CRASH OF REINDEER ON ST. MATTHEW ISLAND. Retrieved March 14, 2015, from http://dieoff.org/page80.htm