Impact of Overpopulation on Quality of Life: A Report

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GLOBAL ISSUES

Contents
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................ 3
SECTION 1.................................................................................................................................. 3
SECTION 2.................................................................................................................................. 3
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................5

TASK 1
SECTION 1
In the era of 21st century, overpopulation is becoming a serious threat to the world.
Governments of most of the countries are worried about the sustainability of the population of
the country. For a quality lifestyle and to maintain a proper balance between their laughter,
happiness and the quality of life citizens should be able to move, work and live freely in the
natural world. For their happiness and enjoyment, people made different choices for the places
where they want to live, the choice of places depends on the size and the population of the
cities.
SECTION 2
According to the article by Derek Parfit (Overpopulation and the quality of life), it is believed
that the size of the population influences the quality of life. The article of Derek Parfit also
explores that the world with less number of people with more happiness does not exist but
there are more people with lesser happiness in the world. To provide a clear explanation of this
argument Parfit has used several principles in his articles such as Average principle, The Total
principle, equality principle and many more. The average principle defines that the life of the
people can be better and average if all the other things are equal, similarly, the Equality
principle also defines that the quality of life should be better if there can be more equality
between the things (Parfit, 2004). It is a stumbling population of seven billion-plus of the world
(Carter, 2018). This overpopulation can be a major problem for our future generations. Since
the overpopulation has already become the reason for the hunger, desertification, depletion of
species and many other problems across the planet (Pimentel, 2012). In the past twenty years,
the numbers of hunger-related deaths have reached 200 million worldwide (Singh et al., 2019).
Overpopulation has not only resulted in the hunger problems and other human sufferings but it
is also disintegrating the diversity of the world (Tal, 2013). Similarly, the quality of life of the
people is also affecting due to the sudden increase in the population. According to the World
Health Organization (WHO), there is a link between the population and the quality of life. The

growing rate of the population has an unpropitious impact on the quality of life of people.
Quality of life includes several factors such as the cultural values, social system, political
systems, development processes and availability of resources etc. if there is a decline in these
factors then it will result in the ultimate decline of the income of the individuals which will
directly or indirectly have an impact on the living standards. Quality of life cannot be
determined only through the necessities of a person i.e. food, clothes and shelter but the
individual should also be satisfied with their socio-psychological needs as well. Quality of life
can also be understood as the happiness of people. But since happiness cannot be measured
therefore the term of quality of life has been used in place of happiness. The growing
population also leads to a decline in the health of individuals. A growing population is leading to
growth in pollution. Therefore the first basic requirement of the people in this age is the clean
water to drink. As less than 50 % of the population of the world have access to clean water for
drinking. But at the same time, scientists have discovered many ways to prevent diseases and
save the lives of millions of people who must have died due to these diseases (Cafaro and Crist,
2012). To overcome this problem of population growth the government and the organizations
must have projected new strategies to limit the chances of having fewer available resources in
the near future so that the individuals can maintain their quality of life (Kinder, 2018).

REFERENCES
Cafaro, P. and Crist, E. eds., 2012. Life on the brink: environmentalists confront overpopulation.
University of Georgia Press.
Carter, E.D., 2018. Overpopulation. In Companion to Environmental Studies (Vol. 76, No. 80, pp.
76-80). ROUTLEDGE in association with GSE Research.
Kinder. C, 2018. The Population Explosion: Causes and Consequences. (Online) Available at:
http://teachersinstitute.yale.edu/curriculum/units/1998/7/98.07.02.x.html Last Accessed on 5
August 2019.
Parfit, D., 2004. Overpopulation and the Quality of Life. The repugnant conclusion (pp. 7-22).
Springer, Dordrecht.
Pimentel, D., 2012. World overpopulation.
Singh, R., Srivastava, P., Singh, P., Upadhyay, S. and Raghubanshi, A.S., 2019. Human
Overpopulation and Food Security: Challenges for the Agriculture Sustainability. In Urban
Agriculture and Food Systems: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice (pp. 439-467). IGI
Global.
Tal. A, 2013. Overpopulation Is Still the Problem. (Online) Available at:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/overpopulation-is-still-t_b_3990646 Last Accessed on 5
August 2019.
Therudeparrot, 2015. A REVIEW: DEREK PARFIT’S, OVERPOPULATION AND QUALITY OF LIFE.
(Online) Available at: https://therudeparrot.wordpress.com/2015/06/27/a-review-derek-
parfits-overpopulation-and-quality-of-life/ Last Accessed on 5 August 2019.