Peter Soares
Title: “Africa to Record Largest Population Growth Over Next 40 Years”
By: Jennifer Lazuta
It is predicted that sub-Saharan Africa will have the largest population growth by 2050. The Population Reference Bureau, has said that the poorest region in the world will double in population by 2050 from 1.1 billion to 2.4 billion. They based this off the high fertility rates where women in Africa average 5.2 children in their lifespan. Some countries like Niger have birth rates as high as, 7.6 children per women. Previously, the large fertility rate was balanced with HIV/AIDS but, due to access to medical technology their lifespan has increased exponentially elevating the population.
So the next question is how do they balance their population before it grows out of control. Ideas that came up were, starting family planning services which counsels couples on how to reduce birth rates and the population and maternal health benefits of spacing births out. If the growth rate is not reduced it could have a plethora of negative effects including: higher rates of poverty, unemployment,and environmental degradation. This can have an impact on foreign aid help from other countries due to the amount of money being needed to be spread among a larger population.
Amber Morgan
link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/howard-steven-friedman/population-growth-worldwide_b_1245202.html
By: Howard Steven Friedman
Title: "10 Countries With the Largest Projected Population Growth: American Exceptionalism”
Despite it often being over-looked The United States is one of the most over populated countries in the world. A nations population can grow one of two ways, either internal growth( birth/death rates) or external growth( immigration/emigration). Based off of these two factors estimations the U.S. are aimed to grow by ninety-three million between 2010 and 2050. This ranks us fifth in huffington posts top ten estimated countries for population growth. The U.S. is so highly estimated for many different reasons different from many other countries experiencing over population. The U.S.’s wealth, immigration rates, and fertility rates are a major influence on the growth of its population. The U.S. is the only wealthy country in the top 25 for overpopulation. However the immigration rates are more so the problem, almost forty million Americans were born in a foreign country and moved to the U.S. thats thirteen percent of the country. The current United States population of 310 million is the third largest country in the world with a continuation in growth this high the U.S. will most definitely be over populated. If rates do not reduce the United States over population will begin to have a large negative effect on the country including higher unemployment rates, higher poverty rates, and even a large effect on the countries environment due to growth in the usage of land by citizens.
Emily Jonczyk
By: Fred
De Sam Lazaro 
link: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/globalhealth-july-dec11-population_10-19/
Title: India’s Growth Held Back by Overpopulation
India’s population is at roughly 1.2 billion inhabitants and is projected to grow to nearly 1.8 billion before stabilizing around the middle of the century. In comparison to other countries, the United States population is around 317 million and China has a population around 1.4 billion. With the vast population, there is a significant lack of resources like water. Stories show that some people wait four to six hours for a municipal tank truck to arrive with clean water. The basic public safeties are also inadequate such as public toilets that often malfunction. All of the disorder among basic needs and safety causes the overpopulation issue to become more significant. When a large population begins to have difficulty supporting themselves, the economy and nation can breakdown. Some environmental issues that are associated with overpopulation in India is the pollution, lack of natural resources, and deforestation. Pollution is caused by the malfunctioning public toilets leading people to do so freely in public places. Lack of natural resources is due to the amount of resources needed to support the huge population. Deforestation is an issue as well because people are clearing the forests in order to build more homes and shacks for the population to live in. All of these effects cause India’s overpopulation to be a common headline as well as talk of how to fix the problem.
Stephen Howard
Think about five of your friends. One of them is in China. Well, I mean, not actually, that’s confusing population data with empirical data relevant to a sample, but the statistic is sound. At this point in time, China represents 20% of the world’s population. With a population of 6.7 billion citizens, China’s population is continuing to grow despite its policies. What policies? Well let me tell you!
In the year 1950 (not that long ago from a population standpoint), only 563 million people lived in China. Of course, this was and is still considered a large population, but it was nothing compared to what it is today. The decades following this year were comprised of rapid population growth; the nation boasted more than 1,000,000,000 inhabitants by the end of the 1980’s.
By the end of this period of excessive growth, China decided that action needed to be taken. China then implemented its infamous “One Child Policy,” inhibiting the vast majority of the population from being allowed to have more than one child (to anyone who watched The Prince of Egypt, sound at all like Pharaoh cracking down on the Jews?). This statute has been seen as strict and somewhat overbearing, but it has helped slow down their population to some extent.
Currently, the average woman gives birth to 1.7 children. As we learned from Ms. Collins, most populations require a fertility rate of 2 or higher (because men don’t produce children), but China’s population is still projected to grow. Beyond the fertility rate, this is due to immigration, decreased infant mortality, and longer life span (yay technology).
Overpopulation is a global crisis and Pakistan is among the most overpopulated country in the world.
By: Kabeer Shabeer Baloch 
However, Pakistani politicians and policymakers tend to ignore this issue and focus instead on terrorism, militancy, corruption, inflation, poverty, and illiteracy. Population concerns deserve greater attention, as this is a major social problem for Pakistan, and is consequently creating new social evils. When the population exceeds the limit of available resources it can become a burden on the state and economy.
Pakistan is the 6th most populous country in the world. The rate of population increase is 1.2 percent a year, which means the population will double in 58 years. Pakistan has one of the highest birth rates which presents many challenges for the country. The country faces many crises, but the policies to solve them are not sufficient, as things in Pakistan are very unbalanced in every sector.
In addition, some Pakistanis marry very early and are polygamous, a practice claimed to poorly affect the standard of living. The Pakistani education system is very poor and the government seems unwilling or unable to make effective changes. Moreover, poverty, inflation, illiteracy, social unrest and criminality are the cases in point that are created by overpopulation. Therefore, the government of Pakistan needs to devote not only adequate time and attention to these issues, but to implement real change and reform to solve the overpopulation crisis.
Overpopulation in Pakistan is a major problem that is tossed aside. People overlook the problem of overpopulation in Pakistan and tend to focus more on terrorism and corruption. The author of this article wants there to be more attention on the overpopulation problems in Pakistan. This article points at some specific facts about the atmosphere of Pakistan and why the population is big and growing. I believe there needs to be more of a focus on education so Pakistanians realize what they need to do in order to keep a balanced country and prevent overpopulation. After reading this article I am most interested in how the world and the country of Pakistan overlook the problem of overpopulation and focus on issues concerning terrorism and corruption. In my opinion Pakistan needs to take steps in controlling their population by creating a better education system as well as decreasing poverty.
Kyra Schemmel
Discussion Questions:
How do you believe overpopulation effects the environment?
What strategies can be used to fix the problem of overpopulation? Explain.
What do you think the effects of overpopulation will be once we reach the year of 2075? Why?
