Anna NguyenAW5Essay on Cause and EffectFinal Draft4/18/2014The Impact of Overpopulation on the Environment. The world's population reached seven billion last year and continues to grow rapidly. The UN estimates that the world population will reach 10 billion within the next few decades. Overpopulation in many regions of the world, especially in Asia and Africa, is causing serious damage to the environment. In more developed regions such as North America and Europe, efforts are made to reduce the impact on the environment; however, the overall picture across the world is still bleak. To be more specific, the phenomenon of overuse of natural resources in local areas, pollution and destruction of ecosystems are direct consequences of overpopulation. One of the biggest impacts of overpopulation on the environment is that we overuse the resources in our habitat. Overpopulation leads to exponential increase in the need and consumption of natural resources to support the population. For example, the amount of forests cut down to produce timber increases dramatically as the area's population increases. Furthermore, the exploitation of coal, minerals and metals to build factories, provide energy and housing for large groups of people causes the ground to corrode faster, causing more landslides in mountainous areas. The lack of clean water in many parts of Africa, China and India is also the result of overpopulation. The large consumption of water from wells, lakes and rivers makes them dry up much faster. On the other hand, the need for food also increases rapidly with population growth. Another common phenomenon in many parts of the world is the rapid deprivation of nutrients in the soil due to an incredible amount of crops being planted and a harvest... middle of paper... waste and waste in the seas are also causing serious problems. The destruction of coral reefs is a direct consequence of us dumping our industrial waste into the oceans. Evidently, this phenomenon interrupts the food source of marine animals and causes ecosystem collapse. It is obvious that our expansion has affected many other living creatures in the ecosystems of many areas of the world. Many may have thought that large populations are difficult for governments to support. Little of what we know, in the process of supporting our growing population, we have devastated the environment and put many of its living creatures at risk. If we don't change and solve the problem of overpopulation, I suspect that in a few decades the Earth would no longer be as beautiful a home as it is now and generations after us would have to suffer the consequences we have.