Overpopulation; when the human population exceeds the maximum capacity. Claustrophobic much? Overpopulation is a huge issue happening in our world today. There are a few causes of overpopulation. These causes include; decreased death rate, better medical facilities used to decrease death rate, advanced fertility treatments, and unplanned pregnancies. You might be thinking, “Wow! A longer life and more cute babies?! What’s wrong with that?” In fact, there are many consequences to having too many people on our planet. Some important consequences of overpopulation we should be aware of include but are not limited to the following; depletion of natural resources, violence and conflict, a surfeit of unemployed peoples and ridiculously high costs of living (Rinkesh, n.d.). Overpopulation is known is applied social psychological terms as a social dilemma. A social dilemma can be defined as a decision one must make, benefiting society or benefiting themselves. People who decide to have more than the average amount of children in their family without considering the many consequences mentioned above can be noted as individuals who are fulfilling their individual needs over the needs of the population. The behavior of multiple individuals satisfying their individual desires over considering the limitations of the environment is known as the tragedy of the commons (Schneider, F., Gruman, J., & Coutts, L. 2012).
Let us hone in on a few specific consequences of overpopulation, the depletion of natural resources. As we all know, the Earth has a limited amount of food and water to support all living things on Earth. If Earth is overpopulated, there will eventually not be enough food and water to support everybody on Earth. People on Earth have been going to great lengths to try and receive as many natural resources as we possibly can. Although, these practices are not always environmentally safe as well. For example, farmers genetically modify their crops so they can produce more product in a short amount of time. This is not always the safest route for human consumption because some of these genetic modifications include chemicals that can be harmful (Rinkesh, n.d.). In any case, the depletion of natural resources could lead to another consequences mentioned, high costs of living. If resources are numbered, that means there is not enough food and water for everybody. The economy will try to preserve natural resources by raising the prices of certain products. Therefore, only some people will be able to afford the resource and the others will have to substitute this resource for another (Rinkesh, n.d.).
How do we solve this social dilemma? Intervention strategies such as educating people about sex and the consequences of overpopulation could open individual’s eyes as to why overpopulation is such a big problem. Educating people on statistical evidence and data trends of the extremely large increase of the population in the next 50 years compared to the statistical trends of the large decrease in natural resources may influence people to limit the amount of children they are planning on having. Creating cognitive dissonance by conducting a survey asking people in their 20’s how many children they are planning on having after being educated on the dangers of overpopulation may help mitigate the social dilemma. Social dilemmas like overpopulation, recycling, pollution, etc can not be solved unless the population is aware that there is a problem. Therefore, it is important to educate the population before asking them to change their behaviors. The tragedy of the commons is only a tragedy if people focus solely on themselves. If everybody works together as a community to solve a problem, we will surely come to a solution. If we fall for the common fallacy, that our personal impacts will not make a difference then we will all be doomed. It is important to remember that every little bit counts, and our society depend on it.
References:
Rinkesh. (n.d.). What is overpopulation? Retrieved September 22, 2017, from
http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/causes-effects-solutions-of-overpopulation.php
Schneider, F., Gruman, J., & Coutts, L. (2012) Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Over population is definitely a social issue. it is not at the point that it is impacting the world like it will be years from now. The world is only able to sustain life for a certain amount of people and we have exceeded that number already. Another intervention program that could be implemented is one similar to China. In Chinese culture they are not allowed to have more than a certain number of kids. Getting involved in the legality of having children help regulate people having children by law. I agree that cognitive dissonance can be practiced in people in their 20’s to inform them of the negative impacts that overpopulation brings. The issue here is being able to convince people that overpopulation will have an effect on their lives. At this moment it is does not impact our life heavily because there are still sufficient resources available. I believe that the cognitive dissonance can be used not to inform them of the negative affects, but to inform them on the impact it will have on their children.