Human Population Page 1 Human Population Mitigation Plan Pamela Scott November, 11, 2008 Human Population Page 2 Overpopulation is defined as the condition where the number of organisms exceeds the carrying capacity of its habitat (reference). This means that though over population can be interpreted to mean ‘too many people’ it is not actually a function of size or density but of the ratio of population to its available resources. There are several factors that contribute to overpopulation. These include an increase in births a decrease in deaths, an increase in immigration into more developed areas, a decrease in emigration from more developed areas and an unsustainable use of resources. In the 18th century, Thomas Malthus examined the factors that limit population growth. He thought that as population increases, it puts pressure on the means of subsistence, which throws it off balance and then the population collapses. Neo-Malthusians in the 1970s re-examined Malthus’ theory and stated that population numbers will increase until it encounters with critical resources limits and population will collapse. The problem with both of these theories is that the problem is more much complex and these theories do not take into account the social and historic context of population growth (Barrow, 1999). Human Population Page 3 Tiffin (1993) stated that as population increases, there is an increase in technological innovation. This results in the quality of life improving and an increase in environmental divagation. However, in developing countries, it is the struggle to maintain a standard of living that leads to environmental divagation. When a population is focused on providing for basic needs, there is little time left to worry about the environment. At the United Nations Conference on World Population, leaders stated that population growth cannot continue at its current rate or people will begin to die. The solutions are to find some way to limit growth or...