...Problems with population growth For two consecutive years since 2009, the population has grown just 0.7% a year, down from annual increases around 1% in previous years and the lowest since the late 1930s. The U.S. gained 2.2 million people from 2010 to 2011, fewer than the 2.8 million added a decade earlier, reaching a total of 311.6 million. (El Nasser, 2012) The recent rapid increase in human population over the past two centuries has raised concerns that the planet may not be able to sustain present or larger numbers of inhabitants. Steve Jones, head of the biology department at University College London, has said, "Humans are 10,000 times more common than we should be". (Gibbens, 2011) Population growth has caused many environmental problems, such as rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, global warming, and pollution, all aggravated by the population expansion. In 1800 the economy passed one billion inhabitants. But the rising numbers are having some serious effects, population growth has already caused climate change, rising sea levels, extinction of wildlife and expanding deserts. Existence has been fuelled by the depleting resources that are fossil fuels, minerals, groundwater, soil, forests and fisheries rather than natural income. (Martin, 2011). Other problems associated with overpopulation include the increased demand for resources such as fresh water and food, starvation and malnutrition, consumption of natural resources faster than the rate of regeneration...
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...Problems with Population Growth Population change is caused when the birth rate is higher than the death rate, the birth rate is defined as ‘the number of live births per thousand of the population’ and the death rate is defined as ‘the number of live births per thousand of the population’ (Brooks, 2011). As of October 2010 the world’s population reached a total of 6.9 Billion people which is 1.6 Billion more than what it was in 1990 (Brooks, 2011). With the birth rate being much higher than the death rate the government must invest more money in caring for the larger number of elderly people, but they must also invest in catering for the increase number of birth each year. Population growth can have a number of negative effects such as environmental problems, with population growth contributing to almost 7.9% of the world’s environmental problems (Wenner, 2005). Population growth also has effects such as reduction of the world’s resources, and overpopulation of certain areas. In countries such as Tanzania, the economy is growing each year by 6.4 percent, as well as this the population is growing by 2.9 percent per year. The country’s government is concerned that they need to control this fast population growth in order for them to accelerate economic growth. Tanzania’s government have a 5 year plan in place in order for them to reduce the number of maternal deaths to 175 for every 100,000 births (Saiboko, 2012). The huge increase in population growth means that there is...
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...Human Population and Environmental Problems by PAUL R. EHRLICH, Ph.D.(Kansas) Professor of Biology and Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, U.S.A. rather small number that are thought of as 'important' forms of wildlife—will have a dramatic negative feedback effect on the capacity of our planet to support human life. This is because, although politicians and laymen tend to focus attention on air pollution and water pollution as the most serious environmental problems, in fact the most devastating of all is the destruction of the life-support systems of our planet. These are the natural ecosystems that provide us with a series of public-service functions without which we cannot persist indefinitely on this Earth—such functions as maintaining the quality of the atmosphere, controlling roughly 99 % of the potential agricultural pests, recycling of our waste products, and many other services that we cannot perform for ourselves (Ehrlich et al., 1973). The third message which I would like to give you is that the time for research as a major approach to the world's problems is long past. If you are trapped in a forest, downwind from a forest fire, and it is raging towards you at ten or more kilometres per hour, you do not immediately convene a committee to study reforestation—you call for water. In human society, calling for water basically consists of promoting political action...
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...To what extent is population growth more of a problem than resource growth? To ensure a good quality of life for future generations they need to have easily accessible bacic resources like water, food and fuel, however at the current rates of resource use, some suggest we many have run out of oil and gas by 2050. For example the institute of Mechanical Engineers predicts that in the future oil extaction will become more difficult and that by 2040 we will only be able to produce 20% of our current oil output, while population continues to grow 75million per year. So what is the answer and how much of a problem is population growth and resource usage? That is what I aim to clear up in this essay. The ideas put forward by Robert Malthus in the late 18th century suggested that as time goes on, sooner or later population will exceed Earth’s carrying capacity and thus the Earth’s resources will not be able to provide a sufficient standard of life to all its inhabitants. This is because human population grows geometrically while resource numbers grow arithmetically. Therefore Malthus suggests that people should delay marriages, reduce fertility rates and also that some should not marry at all and therefore abstain from sexual intercourse. However Malthus’ theory has been vulnerable to a lot of scrutinizing because many feel his ideas have now been proved wrong. For example since his lifetime the population has doubled and life expectancy is now at 68 and the World seems to be coping...
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...POPULATION GROWTH: PROBLEM OF THE PHILIPPINES Pasicollan, Vanessa M. Baliday, Erika Keisha R. Dopeño, Kristine Jade Clemente, Joshua Reniva, Jhon Carl Table of Contents Title Page Chapter I I. Introduction 3 II. Background of the study 4 III. Statement of the Problem 6 Scope and Delimination 6 Significance of the study 7 Chapter II Methodology 8 Chapter III Review of Literature and Study Chapter IV Data analysis and Findings Chapter I PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND In this chapter, the researchers will be discussing about the Introduction, Statement of the Problem, Hypothesis, Scope and Delimitation of the Study, Significance of the Study and Definition of Terms. I. Introduction : ------------------------------------------------- This thesis aims to discuss the population growth on some countries specially Philippines, that somehow...
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...Expert Views on Increasing Population World’s population growth is close to seven billion, the rapid growth is raising concerns with many experts. Experts today are arguing their views on the issue of population growth. While both Alon Tal the author of “Overpopulation Is Still the Problem” and Robert Walker the writer of “Overpopulation Is Not the Problem? Really?” state that population growth is a problem, the author of “The overpopulation myth” Fred Pearce and the author of “Overpopulation Isn’t The Problem: It’s Too Few Babies” Joel Kotkin disagree. This paper will examine the work of these four writers to analyze their perspective whether population growth has negative or positive consequences. Lack of food, reduction in living organisms, ecological and environmental problems as claimed by Tal are the outcomes of population surplus. He asserts that deterioration of China’s natural capital was part cause of China’s food crisis during 1958 and 1961 that resulted in more than twenty million people staving; as many died due to lack of food. China’s food crisis should teach the world a lesson states Tal that the outcome of taking no notice to the lack of natural resources and growing population is severe. He agrees that China’s one-child policy was not popular with the china’s people, however, it prevented many deaths caused by starvation. Tal goes on to explains that in the developing regions of the world one in eight people suffer from continues undernourishment...
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...RAPID INCREASE POPULATION INTRODUCTION: It is often suggested that rapid population growth, especially in developing countries, correspondingly intensifies environmental degradation, which must therefore be mitigated by reducing the rate of population growth. The validity of this assumption can be tested by means of an algebraic identity that relates the amount of a pollutant introduced into the environment to the product of three factors: population, "affluence" (the amount of goods produced per capita), and "technology" (the ratio of pollution generated to goods produced). For several forms of pollution that have a known origin in a specific production process (electricity production, use of motor vehicles, and consumption of inorganic nitrogen fertilizer), it is possible to compare the inferred rate of increase in pollution levels with the rate of population growth in developing countries. The results show that the rate of increase in pollution is largely determined by the technology factor, which governs the amount of pollution generated per unit of goods produced or consumed. This observation extends earlier evidence that both the increasing levels of pollution observed in developed countries and the results of efforts to reduce them support the view that the decisive factor determining environmental quality is the nature of the technology of production, rather than the size of the population. Body: Global human population growth amounts to around 75 million...
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...Population Growth. What first comes to mind when these two words are spoken? Population Growth is the increase in the number of individuals in a population. This is happening all around the world and it is not decreasing. What will happen if this continues rapidly? What will others do? Some questions like these cannot be answered, but there are still ways to prevent overpopulation from becoming the future. Only if everybody works together to change the world for the better. This conflict goes farther back than most will assume. Most started with very little, and maintained their population until others expanded around the world. Once the nations entered the Industrial Revolution it increased by 25%, which started in the 1800’s as others started immigrating to different countries for more possibilities. After World War 2 population increased rapidly each year by a billion in a shorter time period. “Human population entered the 20th century with 1.6 billion people and left the century with 6.1 billion”(World Population Distribution 2). This data shows how fast a change that is significant to lives can happen. As the years go by population growth grows and it is not slowing down. This is a problem the world is facing that is almost impossible to stop if others do not work together. The countries that are most popular...
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...Parallels between Easter Island and the Present In any civilization, the roles of natural resources are important as they help sustain populations who use them and ensure the health of the environment. However, these natural resources are vulnerable to overexploitation and can cause problems in today’s societies. In the past, Easter Island, at one point, was an Island that was full of forests like the other Polynesian Islands. But due to unsustainable practices of deforestation, Easter Island lost its natural resources and experienced a population decline. Today’s societies are also facing similar environmental problems such as Haiti where there are signs of poverty and widespread deforestation. Analogies exist between Easter Island and present...
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...to come to grips with the specter of continued population growth in much of the developing world and continued depletion of natural resources everywhere. In particular, four challenges loom: Continuing the downward trend in population growth, reaching replacement–level fertility as soon as possible; stemming the hemorrhage of biological diversity; reducing non-sustainable consumption patterns; and mitigating the worst effects of global climate change. Furthermore, to ensure that the future generation is not deprived of its resources the impact of population growth on the resources has to be recognized. Thus, it is right to say that there is a relationship between the behavior of population variables and sustainable development. Therefore, the aim of this essay is to clearly state my position as a Demographer, how I would harness the integration of Population Variables towards sustainable Development. The essay will give definition to key terms in it such as Population and Sustainable Development and at its end a conclusion is given based on what is discussed in the essay. Snelson (1974) defied population as a group of individuals of the same species living and interbreeding within a given area. Members of a population often rely on the same resources, are subject to similar environmental constraints, and depend on the availability of other members to persist over time. In other words the United Nations (2010) defined population as the total number of people living in a given...
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...communist China’s population growth. There are both some advantages and disadvantages between China’s old birth control policy and China’s new birth control policy. But generally, it is obvious that the new China birth control policy is adjusted more to modern society than the old China’s birth control policy. The old policy caused some social problems. It restricted economic development. And the new policy could solve some social problems which the One-child Birth Control Policy caused. The One-child Birth Control Policy caused some social problems like sex ratio imbalance and abortion. Both the new policy and the old policy have great effects on population. The One-child Birth Control Policy stipulates people that one parent can only have one child. After the Second World War, China had a population explosion which caused social problems such like food shortage and famine. To resolve this situation, China’s government decided to establish a policy to limit the population growth which is China’s birth control policy. China successfully controlled its population growth after they stipulate that policy. In 2013, the China’s government decided to implement a new birth control policy. This policy allowed couples to have a second child if one of the parents was the only child in his family. Also, the New Policy can continue to control the population growth because they only allowed a family to have two children maximum. It could solve the sex ratio imbalance problem and the disdain...
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...tremendous increase in the amount of people that became aware of the environmental movement’s ability to stop problems with the environment. Around the mid 1950’s, there were several catastrophic environmental disasters that occurred. Because there were access to radio and media at the time, it was easy for many people to see as well as hear all about the environment and the disasters that it involved, and this made a lot of people more “environmental friendly”. 2. Explain the main point concerning exponential growth and whether it is good or bad. Compare exponential growth to a logistic growth curve and explain how these might apply to human population growth. What promotes exponential growth? What constrains population growth? Our planet has many problems concerning the exponential growth of human life. Our main problem has become a great big problem to deal with, and I am sad to say that eventually our population will be so big that humans will not have enough resources in order for us to sustain life on our planet. Without human life on the planet, it would cause other life forms to eventually become extinct. I doubt if exponential growth is desirable on Earth, but a more balanced and steady population increase would definitely put a lot of people at ease. If our planet had enough resources that lasted forever, then exponential population growth wouldn’t be...
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...Population explosion is the most serious problem facing our country today. With 16 per cent of the world’s population, India is toady the second largest populations’ country in the world. As on March 1.1991, when the last census was conducted, the country’s population stood at 846.30 million, with 439.23 males and 407.07 females. The country’s population is currently estimated at about 950 millions. The population growth has been extremely rapid in the last 50 years. The phenomenal growth is now more appropriately termed as “population explosion”. The phenomenal growth rate in population is largely because of the industrial and technological revolutions that had taken place in the recent times. The new technologies have not only brought down the death rate because of the vastly improved Medicare resulting in increased life expectancies, but had also facilitated increased food production to take care of food needs of the increasing population. Though population explosion is a major problem being faced by several other countries too, with the world population estimated to reach 7 billion by the beginning of the 21st century, the problem is much more severe in India because of the increasing pressure on the limited resources of the country. With the growth of food grains not keeping pace with the increase in population during some years because of the unfavourable weather conditions, the specter of hunger hunts millions of households in the country. Even when the country...
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...---------------------------------- Environmental Science is the study how humans interact with their environment. Environmental Science is interdisciplinary - brings together information from several physical, biological and social sciences. The main goal of environmental science is to solve environmental problems using science. What is “Natural Environment”? –Environment is our natural surroundings consisting of living and nonliving things. The Earth is part of our environment, comprising 4 “Spheres” Biosphere (living things), Hydrosphere (water), Atmosphere (Air) and Lithosphere (land). Human Impacts: Humans are altering the environment and creating environmental problems. Our main problem involves human population growth and the use of earth’s resources and environmental pollution. Environmental Problems – Examples (a) Depletion of Natural Resources (b) Deforestation (c) Global climate changes (d) Loss of biodiversity (e) Pollution of Air, Water, Land Ecological Footprint is a measure of humanity’s demand on nature. A carbon footprint is "the total set of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by a person Impacts of Rapid Population Growth: Rapid population growth depletes the Earth’s resources diminishes, quality of life, and damages the environment. Impacts on the environment include, (a) land degradation, (b) air and water pollution (c) climate change. (d) Deforestation (e) loss of biodiversity Sustainability is a major theme of environmental science. : "Meeting...
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...Timetable Forum Ask What's new Shop Uni-find Home » GCSE » Geography » Populations » Population Growth Population Growth Revise quicker reader Get revision guides Get question banks Ask questions Make a timetable Access Now (or Login) Migration Back to Populations Revise quicker now! World population growth is increasing,and is already causing many problems. It is projected to continue growing in some parts of the world whilst others stabilise, with some estimates putting the final population of the world as high as 12 billion (it is currently half that). Copyright S-cool Managing population growth Population growth brings with it many pressures. The environmental impacts are discussed below, however, there are many other effects of this rapid growth. The main areas of rapid population growth are: Asia, Africa and Latin America. These developing areas are moving through the demographic transition model from stage 2 to stage 3. In other words, during the second half of the 20th century their death rates fell, whilst the birth rates continued to be high. This was due to improving health care and sanitary conditions. As a result of the BR being so much higher than the DR, the population of these areas has exploded. This population growth in the LEDC's could lead to a range of problems, which are listed below: Urban areas will become increasingly overcrowded. Shanty towns will...
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