Emily Gutekunst
Mr. Orner
AP Environmental
28 February 2017
Abstract
In this paper, the main topic the audience will be reading about is overpopulation. However, the paper will be broken down into different sections. The first section is the “Lit Review” where I looked at, and broke down John Calhoun’s behavioral sink experiment. The audience will read how it was performed, Calhoun’s findings during, and after the experiment, and how humans can learn from the mistakes the mice made. Pictures of the actual experiment and Calhoun and his setup are also included.
In the second portion of the research paper, the audience will read about various topics about over population. Things such as the main reasons for overpopulation, the effects of certain things overpopulation effects, such as water and food supply and lack of biodiversity, and also solutions on how we can help solve overpopulation problems. Graphs on how the population is rising, and how it has already risen, and charts showing how our water supply is deteriorating are also included in this portion.
The last portion is the “Works Cited” page where all the sources I either used directly in my paper, or I referenced to get some background information.
Overpopulation
Introduction
Overpopulation is a growing problem all over the world, literally, and most people underestimate the problems it causes, and the damage it can do to this planet. Before we can inform people enough to even slow down the population rate it may be too late. As long as the population continues to increase at the incredible rate is has been increasing by, the amount of resources we have left on this planet is going to slowly dwindle. In fact, it has already begun to deteriorate.
Sadly, not only will overpopulation limit our natural resources, but it will also limit the freedoms we have to do the things we want. It will limit our ability to travel around the globe, it will limit the things we all want to see, such as seeing the wonderful sights in nature. A very recent example that can be used to show how we are ruining this planet is the death of the Great Barrier Reef. We are literally destroying this planet, but nobody really seems to understand how drastic of an impact overpopulation has on this world. Although overpopulation may not directly affect most of the things happening to this planet it has an indirect result on it. For example, all of the waste and litter found everywhere comes along with people, so the more people there are, the more people are going to litter and the more trashed this planet is going to become.
Especially in the last one hundred or so years, the population of Earth has risen at an increasingly high rate, higher than years before this. In 2015, the population is much higher than seven billion people on this planet, that is crazy. The growing
population rate is increasing by three people by every second of every single day. At that rate, there is a growing population of three thousand people in just twenty minutes. Just between the years 1999 and 2011, a twelve year time span, the population has risen by one billion people. That is insane. When looking at overpopulation, we really see how many problems it brings about. Conflict, overcrowding and poverty, and the dwindling of natural resources are some of the main issues overpopulation brings to the surface, and that is just the beginning.
Lit Review:
“The Behavioral Sink”
The study I looked at was performed in 1972 by scientist, and animal behaviorist John Calhoun. He created a rodent paradise called Universe 25 where he
divided different boxes into “main squares” and then subdivided into levels, with ramps going up to “apartments.” The place appeared great, and was always kept stocked with food, but its inhabitants were doomed from the get-go. John Calhoun designed this experiment knowing the rodents would eventually kill themselves, rather than him providing limited and harsh conditions to kill them off.
The “utopia” started out with only eight mice, four male and four female. As the population slowly began to grow, He found that there were four distinct phases of population change observed during the experiment. The first stage, named “Strive”, was a phase in which the mice explored and adjusted to their new habitat, set their territories and created their nests. The second stage was named the “Exploit Period”. During this stage the mice population exploded. Calhoun observed that some of the mice apartments became more populated than others. This, in turn, would cause those mice to use more of the resources than the other mice. This is where we start to see the crowding begin. He called the third phase the “Equilibrium Phase”. During this phase, the mice population peaked at 2200 individuals, although there was space for 3000. During the third phase Calhoun noticed the start of the downfall to this mice population. The day the mice population peaked was day 560, which marked the day they everything really began to fall apart. The fourth and final stage Calhoun noticed while observing this experiment was the decline. In this phase the population plummeted. The last mouse died 600 days after the experiment began.
The few secluded spaces housed a few mice Calhoun called, “the beautiful ones.” Usually, guarded by one male, the females inside the space didn’t breed, fight or do anything but eat and groom and sleep. When the population started declining the beautiful ones were spared from violence and death, but had completely lost touch with social behaviors, including having sex or caring for their young. Males fought each other for acceptance, those that were defeated were forced to withdraw. Some males became repeated targets of attacks because of their weakness. In fact, in Calhoun’s notes, he stated “Many [female mice] were unable to carry pregnancy to full term, or to survive delivery of their litters if they did. An even greater number, after successfully giving birth, fell short in their maternal functions. Amongst the males the behaviour disturbances ranged from sexual deviation to cannibalism and from frenetic over-activity to a pathological withdrawal from which individuals would emerge to eat, drink and move about only when other members of the community were asleep. The social organisation of the animals showed equal disruption…” (ReturnofKings,com). After the original mice died due to this overcrowding and social problems, these newer generations were born in the now dysfunctional mouse utopia. These mice became withdrawn, spending their days obsessively grooming themselves and dedicating their time solely to eating , drinking and sleeping, the very basic functions that you need to survive.This generation of mice, would not reproduce.In the end, these mice were became unintelligent, especially compared to the previous generations of mice.
Calhoun concluded that the stress from social interaction caused the disturbances in behaviour seen in his experiments. “If we truly stand apart from the rest of the animal kingdom, we ought to be able to avoid the same pitfalls. What is certain is that unless humans collectively apply some soul-searching, we will fall for the same trap the mice did” (ReturnofKings).
Although we are not doomed for the same “pitfall” as the mice if we take what experiments such as this one teach us and learn from it. Some things we as humans can take out of this experiment are how the amount of space we have really is the determining factor of everything, and how civilizations cope with the amount of space they are given. The most important, and also the most limiting factor in Calhoun’s experiment’s was space. As time went on, the mice passed on the negative behavioural attitudes and traits to the next generation, and these, subsequently passed them on to the next generation, with the addition of new unsocial attitudes. In the real, human world we also see these factors take place. Along with space being limited, the number of people we interact with during the day is also limited. There are natural limitations on the degrees of social interaction we can manage on a daily basis, just like with the mice. In humans this is referred to as “Dunbar’s number“, and it has been observed to be true in social media sites. Dunbar’s number can be defined as “a theoretical limit to the number of people with whom any individual is able to sustain a stable or meaningful social relationship (usually considered to be roughly 150)” (OxfordDictionaries).
This experiment was meant to replicate what occurred after World War II, during the Baby Boomer Era. It even acquired its own catchy name, “The Behavioral Sink.” If starvation didn’t kill everyone, people would destroy themselves. The best option was to flee to the country or the suburbs, where people had space and life was peaceful and natural. This experiment eventually gained the nickname the ‘Behavioral Sink” and even had studies follow this to prove it’s validity. A recent study pointed out that Universe 25 was not, if looked at as a whole, too overcrowded. Pens, or “apartments” at the very end of each hallway had only one entrance and exit, making them easy to guard. This allowed more aggressive territorial males to limit the number mice in that pen, overcrowding the rest of the world, while keeping the few “beautiful ones” isolated who lived there from normal society. Instead of a population problem, one could argue that Universe 25 had a fair distribution problem.
(A replica of what the Utopia would look like)
(John Calhoun and his actual setup for his “mouse Utopia”)
Discussion
One of the world’s largest problems the world is currently facing is overpopulation. However, this may be one of the world’s unrecognized problems. Either many people are in denial, or they simply do not know the facts and how drastic the changes are that overpopulation causes, they are simply uninformed. Even if some people are aware this problem, many people just overlook it and think “this is a problem that will not affect me” or “I won’t be around for when the effects of this problem start to kick in”. Although, whoever thinks that is completely wrong. Changes of overpopulation will happen in our lifetime, in fact, they are currently happening all around us. Overpopulation occurs when the population of the world reaches an undesirable number that exceeds its carrying capacity. Its concept originated in 1798 in England when Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus noticed that the production of food production had risen incrementally, while the population grew exponentially. Generally, it is caused by many factors, such as reduced mortality rates (Lombardo, Crystal).
According to records, the world population has already soared past 7 billion, and every second of the day, it is growing by 3 people. In 1960, the average life expectancy was 51, which increased to 69 in 2010, hastening population growth. At the current rate, the population of the least-developed countries is expected to double in the next 31 years (Lombardo, Crystal).Overpopulation is said to have started to degrade the life quality for many, significantly depleting valuable natural resources that they need to
thrive and survive. The most recent reports also show that about 783 million people, which are about 10% of the world population, are lacking access to quality, clean drinking water. In the US, there are more than 1.43 million unplanned births happening every year. During the 20th century alone, the world population has grown from 1.65 billion to 6 billion. The yearly growth rate reached its peak at 2% and above in the late 1960s, but it almost cut in half in 1963. As of August 2016, the total number of human beings currently living in the world is estimated at 7.4 billion, with a current growth rate of around 1.13% per year. As for the current average population change, it is estimated at around 80 million every year.
The UN calculates that there are more than 7 billion living humans on Earth, yet 200 years ago we numbered less than 1 billion.1 Recent estimates suggest that 6.5 percent of all people ever born are alive right now.2 This is the most conspicuous fact about world population growth: for thousands of years, population grew only slowly, but in recent centuries it has jumped dramatically. Between 1900 and 2000 the increase in world population was three times greater than the entire previous history of humanity– an increase from 1.5 to 6.1 billion in just 100 years (WorldPopulation.org). To me, this just seems absolutely crazy. It is so alarming that a population can grow so incredibly fast, and people are not even realizing it, and recognizing how it affecting our planet.
(Prediction of how the world’s population will continue to increase, and how it already has increased according to the U.S. Census).
The 2012 UN projections show a continued increase in population in the near future with a steady decline in population growth rate; the global population is expected to reach between 8.3 and 10.9 billion by 2050. Again, these numbers are outright outrageous. 2003 UN Population Division population projections for the year 2150 range between 3.2 and 24.8 billion. To put these numbers in a more modern
perspective, it took a dozen years for the world population to increase by one billion people. Between 1999 and 2011, global population increased by a billion people.
When we look at these numbers, the first thing we probably think about is how many babies and accidental pregnancies are being welcomed into this ever-growing earth, however, that is not the only reason the population is continuing to rise. Although that is probably one of the most, if not the most important factor in today’s population growth, the increasing life expectancy is also significantly affecting these numbers. Overpopulation is also driven by the ever-increasing life expectancy. Currently, in the U.S., according to the World Health Organization, the average life expectancy is 79 years old for women and 74 years old for men. As recently as 1950, those life expectancy numbers were 71 years old for women and 66 years old for men. And if you go all the way back to 1900, the numbers were 48 years old for women and 46 years old for men. While it may seem irrelevant to compare the current day to over 100 years ago, in reality an increase of almost 35 years per person is a rapid and significant switch for the planet (PostConsumer.com).
In addition to the increasing life expectancy and increase of births across the globe, other reasons why the population has increased so rapidly, and will continue to increase include high birth rate, low infant mortality, increased food production and improvement of public health. In the past, the death rate was high due to lack of food and poor health facilities. As of 2014, discoveries and inventions in food and health sectors have saved lives. Increased food production has made food available to areas with drought and famine. Proper health care facilities and services have helped to cure and control different diseases. There are more births than deaths, and this can be referred to natural increase, thus leading to population increase. Immigration has contributed to population, in developed countries, as people from developing countries move to these countries to seek better prospects. Also, there is a higher rate of natural increase. The rate of natural increase refers to the difference between the number of live births and the number of deaths occurring in a year, divided by the mid-year population of that year, multiplied by a factor (usually 1,000). It is equal to the difference between the crude birth rate and the crude death rate (Stats.oecd.org).
Although many things are improving such as sanitation and health throughout the world, which is are important factors in the growing population, some things are not improving, which ironically enough, is also contributing to the growth in population. Illiteracy is another important cause of overpopulation. Those lacking education fail to understand the need to prevent excessive growth of population. They are unable to understand the harmful effects that overpopulation has.
They are unaware of the ways to control population. Lack of family planning is commonly seen in the illiterate lot of the world. This is one of the major factors leading to
overpopulation. Due to ignorance, they do not take to family planning measures, thus contributing to a rise in population. Most developing nations have large number of people who are illiterate, live below the poverty line and have little or no knowledge about family planning. Getting their children married at an early age increase the chances of producing more kids. Those people are unable to understand the harmful effects of overpopulation and lack of ignorance prompts them to avoid family planning measures (ConserveEnergyFuture.com).
There are so many different causes to overpopulation, and with so many causes, there are even more effects from overpopulation. Overpopulation affects the environment by putting pressure on resources such as water, food and energy. Pollution, soil degradation, deforestation and loss of biodiversity are further effects of overpopulation on the environment.
Freshwater availability is a problem in most developing nations, and the per capita availability of freshwater has decreased by one-third over the past 50 years. Although the supply of freshwater is not infinite, the human population is increasing by 1 billion people every 12 years. Freshwater ecosystems – the diverse communities found in lakes, rivers, and wetlands – may be the most endangered of all. About 34% of fish species, mostly from fresh water, are threatened with extinction, according to the latest tally of the World Conservation Union. Freshwater ecosystems have lost a greater proportion of their species and habitat than ecosystems on land or in the oceans. In addition, they are probably in greater danger of further losses from dams, pollution, overfishing, and other threats. In extent, freshwater ecosystems are quite limited, covering only about 1 percent of the Earth’s surface. Yet, they are highly diverse and contain a disproportionately large number of the world’s species. As human populations grow, so will the problem of clean freshwater availability.
(Showing increasing water scarcity due to overpopulation)
The amount of food is also being greatly impacted by the increasing number of people being brought into the world. Just like freshwater and saltwater ecosystems rely on biodiversity to keep them balanced and in check, the world’s agriculture also relies on biodiversity. However, researchers say producing that much food for the growing population by 2050 could significantly increase the levels of carbon dioxide and nitrogen in the environment, which can cause the extinction of numerous species. Not only that, but in order to keep up with the demand, poor nations with their current practices will need agricultural land larger than the United States – around 2.5 billion acres.
As the demand for food increases, the demand for land to grow that food also increases. This is going to be a part of the cause of deforestation. But along with the growing population and need for land, climate change will also play a factor in all of this. According to a report by the International Food Policy Research Institute for the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, 25 million more children will go hungry by 2050 because of climate change-induced food shortages.
With more people comes a larger need for food and farmland to grow food on, resulting in the destruction of forests for farmland. Housing is also needed for the growing population, especially in the areas near cities. Urban sprawl has caused many forests to be cut down for residential and commercial structures. Fuel is a necessary component of today’s society, and trees are cut down for firewood and charcoal in many countries, especially in third-world countries. Finally, logging and other industries cut down trees for wood to use for furniture, building materials, paper, and many other products. Most of these causes are a direct result of the increasing human population, showing the relation between the two.
According to the Center for Biological Diversity, “The largest single threat to the ecology and biodiversity of the planet in the decades to come will be global climate disruption due to the buildup of human-generated greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. People around the world are beginning to address the problem by reducing their carbon footprint through less consumption and better technology. But unsustainable human population growth can overwhelm those efforts, leading us to conclude that we not only need smaller footprints, but fewer feet.
(Graph of approximately how much carbon dioxide was used among different countries)
Although overpopulation is a growing concern and is a huge issue to tackle, there are some solutions to it that may help control this insane population growth. It is one of the most commonly agreed assumptions that sections of the society deprived of education contribute more to overpopulation. Unaware of the costs children entail the poorer classes try to find more income through whichever way is possible. This then leads to the requirement of more land, more food and more basic resources. Education would make these classes aware of the threats of overpopulation and would also provide them and their children a better world to live in. Another relatively solution would be better sex the education. Talking about sexual intercourse is viewed as taboo in most cultures, but when problems arising due to overpopulation threaten to go out of hand, moral correctness is kind of out of the picture. Sex education needs to be a mandatory subject in schools, students of which can feel the need to start engaging in this activity, but don’t know the advantages of contraceptives. Most parents add to this trouble by procrastinating out of making their child aware about the natural aspects of sex. This results in sexually active teenagers unaware about contraceptives and embarrassed to seek information about the same. The last solution I would like to discuss about how to control overpopulation is simply providing proper accessibility to sexual healthcare. There are countless organizations dedicated to helping women and youth have access to sexual and reproductive health care. Over 150 million couples do not have access to contraception worldwide, so some suggest an increase in reproductive services would be vital to the cause. These solutions are doable and incorporate macro-level as well as micro-level authorities. The key here is education, with the aid of which people can be made aware of the threats posed by overpopulation and to actively try to persuade that.
Works Cited
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Weller, Rob Ludacer and Chris. “8 Scary Facts about a World with 11 Billion People.”Business Insider. Business Insider, 05 Oct. 2015. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.
Lombardo, Crystal, Marc Zorn, and Andrew Gazdecki. “6 Dreadful Overpopulation Facts and Statistics.” Vision Launch. N.p., 14 Jan. 2017. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.
Rinkesh. “Overpopulation: Causes, Effects and Solutions.” Conserve Energy Future. N.p., 23 Jan. 2017. Web. 26 Feb. 2017
The Effect of Overpopulation on Public Health.” MAHB. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.
“World Population Growth.” Our World In Data. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.
What Humans Can Learn From The Mice Utopia Experiment.” Grimag. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.
John B. Calhoun.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Feb. 2017. Web. 26 Feb. 2017
Fessenden, Marissa. “How 1960s Mouse Utopias Led to Grim Predictions for Future of Humanity.” Smithsonian.com. Smithsonian Institution, 26 Feb. 2015. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.