Ava Isola

Ms. Gardner

English 10H/ Period 3

31 October 2017

Overpopulation

Hello, my name is Ava Isola, I am a student at Casa Grande High School in Petaluma, California.

I am here today to speak to the governments of the countries with the highest human populations - this

includes China, India, the United States, Indonesia, and Brazil. The human population on Earth is

growing at a pace it never has before. We have been involved in a type of growth called Exponential

Growth. This means that we have had a lag phase, but our numbers have then shot straight up. Our

population has grown immensely due to modern medicine and technology. As humans, we have looked at

these advances as success, and have reveled in our dominance as a species, but how has our success

affected the world around us? Commented [1]: Rhetorical question

According to the article “Overpopulation: Causes, Effects, and Solutions”, already, less than 1%

of the Earth’s water is accessible for human use. This accounts for lakes and rivers with fresh water that

can be used for drinking and bathing and such. Another article “Effects of Human Overpopulation” states

that the United Nations predict that by the year 2025, which is only eight years away, over half of the

world will be left with hardly any water. We are consuming water ten times faster than it is being

replenished in the regions of northern Africa, the Middle East, India, Pakistan, China, and the United

States. Yes, we ourselves are a part of the “Global Water Crisis”. What are you going to do to stop this,

America?

Not only are we losing fresh water, but there has also been an increase in new epidemics, and the

depletion of natural resources, and habitat loss, and global warming, and climate change (“Effects of Commented [2]: Polysyndeton

Human Overpopulation”). All of these began once human population started its heavy increase. We are

burning more fossil fuels, cutting down more forests, and using up more of our finite natural resources
than ever before, and Mother Nature has already begun to bite back. The problem is not how the planet is Commented [3]: Parallel phrases
Commented [4]: allusion
affecting us. The problem is how we are affecting the planet. The problem is us.
Commented [5]: anaphora/antithesis
So, what are we going to do about this “Population Bomb”? How can we control population

growth in a civil and humane way? Very few people appreciated the strategies used to enforce China’s

one-child policy. The government forced abortions, took away children, and stripped mothers of their

natural rights. How can we improve these strategies? These are the questions we will face as a society in

attempting to decrease population. Worldwatch Institute President Robert Engelman has conjured up nine

strategies to level out the population, just short of nine billion. Not only do these strategies include well-

thought-out plans like putting taxes on things that impact the environment, but it also stresses plans of

action that should have been in progress decades ago, like guaranteeing secondary school for everyone,

especially young women. It has been proven that young women who are both educated and have the right

to divorce and own property are less likely to produce more offspring. This is the solution.

Indeed, many give the argument that the planet changes on its own, and the issue at hand has been

over exaggerated. These thoughts of over exaggeration, however, were sparked by the 1968 author Paul

Ehrlich, who predicted that hundreds of millions would starve to death within the decade. The Green

Revolution came and everyone pushed these thoughts to the side. Since then, the population has doubled

in size. There are many other causes to global warming, like the overuse of resources in first world

countries, but population growth is the most prominent . In 1750, the carbon dioxide emissions caused by

humans was close to zero, there were only 700 million people on Earth then. Carbon Dioxide Emissions

has risen alongside population growth - if we solve the problem at the root, the issues that go alongside it

will be easier to solve.

Men and women of the world, we have work to do. The world is like our own little bubble, if we Commented [6]: alliteration

keep pushing against it, it will pop. This, we must prevent. To all of the leaders of the world’s

governments, specifically northern Africa, the Middle East, India, China, Pakistan, and America, attend to Commented [7]: Direct address

your responsibility toward our delicate bubble. We cannot live without the Earth, but the Earth will be Commented [8]: Imperative sentence/metaphor

better off with less of us in it. Constantly people have been turning towards the notion of overpopulation, Commented [9]: Chiasmus
and for good reason. Pope Francis has announced that global warming is real, and mostly man-made. He

suggested that families should stop “breeding like rabbits”, which targets a long-held tradition in Catholic

families of having many children. This is a turning point, a climax, if you will; it calls for change.

Therefore, we must change. Commented [10]: Short sentence after long ones