Over the last 200 years; humanity has seen a population increase never seen before. This demographic leap has brought with it worries and worries over the years. We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay To get a good perspective on the problem we must first understand the context. The story begins in 1798, Thomas Robert Malthus writes a 58-page essay talking about overpopulation. In this essay he predicted that the world's population would continue to grow and would only be reversed by disease or other natural effects. It was a success at the time but wasn't supported by too much evidence. Two hundred years later, in the mid-to-late 1960s, his ideas saw a second surge in popularity, but this time the data was on his side. Immediately, scientists around the world sought to verify his theory with his evidence, and many agreed with the results he predicted; a demographic boom that would exceed numbers never imagined. In the thousands of years that humanity has lived, such a human population has never been reached and never at this rate. What concerned Robert Malthus and these scientists was not the number of people themselves, but rather the effects and needs of these people. The fact is that people tend to love life. They tend to have food to eat, water to drink, a place to live, and every other basic need. According to Malthus' writing there would not be enough for everyone; the rapid increase in population would be too rapid for the food production industry to follow, and several states would rush to grab enough to survive. This competition would not stop there because food is not the only resource needed. In short, this would mean that every resource needed would be competing and war would likely ensue (leading to a state of calamity). Due to the insufficient amount of resources, people would be likely to die and the number is estimated to be in the millions. All the above evidence was long believed until the 21st century brought with it a new way of thinking and a new way of living that changed the rules of the game. When the 21st century arrived, people took a new look at the problem and saw that overpopulation would not be as bad as previously thought. For starters, from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, birth rates plummeted. Since fewer babies were being born, this meant first of all that the total number of people expected would decrease, which could mean less stiff competition due to lower demand, etc. This happened due to new birth control methods being different from older ones, and because it is new it was not considered in previous studies. Since the previously thought situation will not occur, then what will happen? Even though scientists agree that something as terrible as previously believed will not happen, they still believe that the approximate peak of 11 billion people will pose some challenges. One of these challenges will be water security. According to Live Science, “2.7 billion people around the world currently face some water shortage in their daily lives.” (Live Science Staff). Increasing population will mean increased demand for water and that number could increase. The good thing is that scientists are already finding ways to make more water accessible to people. One of these ways is the desalination of sea water.