Environmental issues caused by overpopulation Essay

Earth's human population is approximately 7.3 billion and growing. That many people means having to produce tremendous amounts of food, which requires copious quantities of soil and water, important resources in agricultural production. We face many issues from exhausting and polluting our resources. Someday Earth will reach its carrying capacity and if we are to prevent a global crisis we must conserve our resources.
Over a billion people don't have access to clean water. Millions die each year of illnesses from contaminated water. Even "first-world nations," such as the U.S., aren't immune to a lack of potable water. Recently in Flint, Michigan the water supply was contaminated by lead. The Flint situation is however minute compared to crises faced in other countries. In India, the 2nd most populous nation on Earth, many rivers are filled with human waste, yet rivers are a primary source of drinking water.
Water is finite, and so much is polluted daily. Purification methods must be expanded. Removing microorganisms is easily done by UV and Ozone treatment. Removing non-organic particles is trickier. One practice is reverse osmosis, which traps pollutants using a semi-permeable membrane allowing water to flow freely. Reverse osmosis is used in desalinization, which is important considering 97.5% of Earth's water is saltwater. Current methods of desalinization are expensive. Developing new ways is important to the future. Mastering desalinization would ease the burden on freshwater aquifers drained by agriculture. Scientists theorize by 2020 the Ogallala Aquifer, which supplies the Great Plains, will be reduced to 1/5 its original level.
Since agriculture accounts for over 80% of water used in the U.S., we need to practice more efficient agricultural techniques. A popular method developed in 1948 is using Center Pivots. Center Pivots are sprayers on wheels that rotate around a fixed point. They distribute water more evenly than most other forms of irrigation. Despite being efficient, they still use vast quantities of water. We must use additional conservation methods.
Strip cropping is such a tactic that prevents soil erosion, retains water and is proven to improve crop yields. It involves planting crops in parallel rows, often along slopes. Planting crops with different growing seasons allows always having a crop holding soil in place. Roots help anchor soil and taller plants act as windbreakers also reducing erosion. Methods like this could prevent another disaster like the 1930s Dust Bowl which devastated the Great Plains.
We face many environmental issues in the future. Every day we're developing cutting edge technology that could solve many of those problems. The Atacama Desert, in Peru, is one of the driest places on Earth many people living there have trouble accessing water, but in 2013 a billboard was installed a billboard capable of drawing moisture from the air and purifying it via reverse osmosis. In three months it supplied over 9,000 liters of water to citizens. Technology like this could save our planet. The journey to making tomorrow's world better begins with conserving resources like soil and water today.