Negative Effects Of Exponential Population Growth

In recent years, Earth’s issues have become increasingly politicized, publicized, and economically important. When you examine how the environment affects us and how we affect it, it’s easy to see that overpopulation is one of earths most pressing environmental issues.

The current global population of 7.6 billion people is expected to reach 11.2 billion in 2100 (UN DESA), and as the Earth’s population continues to grow exponentially, the topic of environmental sustainability is being debated with increased urgency. In the past few years, many large-scale environmental issues have emerged due to human activities: climate change, air and water pollution, rising sea levels, habitat loss, species extinction, and worsening natural disasters are all becoming more and more prevalent. But perhaps our most immediate concern should be whether or not we will be able to continue feeding this ever-increasing population.

The ethical issue to be focused on in this paper is that of global population growth and the negative impact this has on the environment, living standards for those currently living and on future generations. The current world population growth rate is 1.2% per annum (Haub and Gribble 2011: 2). This implies a steadily increasing world population with negative effects on health, food supply, water supply and quality, oceans, forests, biodiversity, climate and standards of living (Hinrichsen and Bryant 2000).

Booming human population growth over the last two centuries has put, and continues to put, many of these life-sustaining systems out of balance and in serious jeopardy, endangering many of the plant and animal species that human beings directly and indirectly depend upon for long-term survival. Bigger human populations naturally mean increases in human activities worldwide, leading to changes in landscapes, oceans, atmospheres, and the path of human history. Some of these changes

The earth as we know it is spiraling towards extinction and the main enemy is overpopulation. Because of the increase in humans and their innate ability to destroy what its’ resources we could possibly lose our world as we know it. The balance in our living systems versus the population is not equal. We in America tend to live for right now, with little or no regard for our future. Can we change? What must we do to change? Let us

Many years ago, Aristotle discussed about the best size for a city, and arrived at a conclusion that “a big increase in the number of population would bring a level of poverty on the citizenry. Poverty will be the cause of all evils including sedition” (Overpopulation: Environmental and Social Problems, 2010). According to studies, human population is expected to reach 9 billion by the year 2050. On the economics point of view, as global population is predicted to grow and more countries become more developed, the demand for natural resources will also increase and may be greater than the supply. Much of the growth in population will also have strong economic growth, and this will occur in developing countries. As the per-capita income of these nations increase, the demand for raw materials for use in electronics, military, farming and urban development will also increase. Because of the global warming issue, green energy and green tech production are expected to rise in developed countries. Unfortunately, future supply of these natural resources may not be able to meet the increasing demand (Supply and Demand, 2013). This essay aims to explain what things could happen to the world if the demand for natural resources becomes greater than its supply due to overpopulation. Does overpopulation causes the demand for natural resources to be greater than the supply, and what things could happen as a consequence for this? Yes, overpopulation results in higher demand for natural

The issues of overpopulation, consumption and resource depletion are, of course, inextricably interrelated. After all, more people mean more mouths to feed, water to drink and air to breathe. Indeed, increased population levels naturally result in

Overpopulation, which is the increase of human population on Earth, is one of the most harmful environmental problems going on in today's society. As the rate of deaths has decreased, the rate of births has gone up drastically. As the human population grows more in quantity in little time, there are numerous effects that it is having on production for human necessities that later harm the Earth. This is truly a problem as studies show that by 2025, almost half of the world will be facing problems with access to freshwater and 70% of all freshwater on Earth will be going towards human demand. Later on, this can evolve into many other problems that can lead to, as shown by studies, the next mass extinction. The origin of this problem all started out during the Industrial Revolution. As said by many, the Industrial Revolution changed the face of the planet. As more buildings and jobs were made, more people worked and got paid better and had the opportunity to have children because they were finally able to sustain them. Greater food production, new medicines, and better sanitation are some of the many factors that led to higher birth rates and lower death rates. Overpopulation on Earth is a problem to humans because of the negative effects on human necessities leading to climate change.

Over the past 50 years the human population has grown exponentially, and as the world’s population continues to increase. A Lot of research has been done by climatologists around the world directly linking the effects of population growth to increased CO2 emissions. I will provide data behind the negative externalities linked with these increased CO2 emissions and how they are linked to overpopulation.

“The two major drivers of humanity’s ecological footprint are population and consumption” (Sherbinin). With population on the rise, it is becoming a growing concern the negative effects population has on the environment. So how much is population actually growing? Where and why is it growing so rapidly? And how can we minimize its effects on our environment? Well, the world population is higher now than it ever has been before and the United Nations World Population Prospects presents a medium variant projection by 2050 of 9.2 billion people and still growing, although at a significantly reduced rate. Most of the projected growth is expected to occur in the developing world, increasing from 5.4 to 7.9 billion (Sherbinin). So, it is widely accepted that the global population has been on the rise for a number of years now and will continue to grow for the foreseeable future reaching record-breaking numbers. But what kind of impacts do these recording breaking numbers have on our environment? This is where consumption plays a major role. Consumption trends are somewhat difficult to predict because they depend more heavily than population projections on global economic conditions, efforts to pursue sustainable development, and potential feedback from the environmental systems. Nevertheless, several indicators of consumption have grown at rates well above population growth in the past century (Sherbinin). Consequently, if consumption trends of the current global

Stephen Emmott, the author of Ten Billion, states in his book, “that if population levels continue to rise, our grandchildren will see the Earth plunged into an unprecedented environment crisis.” There are many threats to our biosphere, that are directly related to human population increases. Over the past last two decades, the human

Most ecologists consider human population growth to be one of the most pressing problems contributing to environmental degradation. Human population growth works in conjunction

The question does not concern whether or not overpopulation is an environmental issue. The evidence is clear, the majority of researchers address this established issue with their own reasoning behind what the biggest cause or effect is. Overall, Hardaway (2014) found that around every one third of a second, the world creates room for one more human. Creating room for another person requires 3.2 tons of carbon, 2,000 square meters of fresh water, and 207 gigajoules of energy (Hardaway, 2014). This takes up more room and resources that the earth does not have. With this rapid growth in population, by the year 2050, the earth would need to have another living area the size of Brazil to accommodate for all the people (Kuo, 2012). With the lack of land availability, overpopulation will be impossible to survive off current natural resources. Researchers focus on why and how overpopulation is effecting the earth such as pollution, consumption, lack of resources, and overcrowding (Kuo, 2012; Wutich and Brewis, 2014). Overpopulation has numerous effects on the environment, and there are many different views on what is causing the biggest effect on the earth.

A few centuries ago, the earth had a lot less inhabitants than it does today. This progression is attributed to advancements in technology and health care. However, as time passed this explosive growth began to work against us, and is now associated as a destructive force, which is currently plaguing the planet. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the fact that, overpopulation is not the primary cause of our modern day predicaments, but is merely a tributary to the actual source. Environmental, economic, agricultural and political factors are some of the main incipient issues, which have thus been ignored, and have resulted in the myth called overpopulation. The negative repercussions of these aspects will be examined, along with a comprehensive study into future populace.

The world is currently home to around 7 billion people, but only a century ago there were only about 1.6 billion people living on it. It is estimated that the world population will soar to approximately 9 or 10 billion within the next forty years (Lambert 6). Along with the increasing global population, climate change and water scarcity are also burdening the survival of our planet (Lambert 5). The FAO has warned that agriculture must produce 70% more food within the next 40 years to feed our expanding population, but the world’s resources and land are dwindling as quickly as the population is expanding (Lambert 5). The world urban populations have been increasing consistently and are