When thinking about global warming, what comes to mind as the cause? Pollution? Deforestation? Well, my thought is: who creates pollution? Who cuts down all these trees? Who uses fossil fuels? Humans.
I don’t believe people are the sole cause, but we are tremendously involved in creating the cause. And really, it’s not so much humans as it is the dramatic increase in population since 1950. In 1950, the population was about 2.5 billion people on this great earth. In 2009—just 59 years later, there are almost 6.8 billion people roaming this globe. And that number continues to grow. By 2050, an estimated 9.3 billion people will call our planet home.
My outlook on this serious issue can be construed as dark, glum, or heartless, but I believe
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There can never be enough food. There can never be enough televisions or books or clothes. So we have to make more. Resulting in pollution from factories, the loss of fossil fuels used to power those factories, and the trees needed to print those books. And what’s so sad, is that that cycle never ends. And if our population continues to grow at this alarming pace, it can only get worse.
It’s hard for people to hear, and very hard for myself to say, but death is necessary. Disease is necessary. Murder is necessary. Extinction is necessary. These things must happen to keep the population of any species in check. And I’m not saying to go kill off billions of people to stop this quick demise of humanity. And it may sound cruel and almost ridiculous, but let the diseased, the dying, and the starving die.
You see, the problem is, as humans, we care too much. We have too many emotions tied into others that our vision on reality can easily be blurred. Natural selection is real and it is necessary in every aspect of life, especially in containing global warming. Because more people equal more pollution. More paper needed. More poverty. More disease. More unemployment. More homeless. More staving. But we can’t fix everything… yet we try.
We feed the starving; we medicate the dying to hold them off for a few, to satisfy our own need to care for someone other than ourselves, for our own greed for popularity and reputation. When that commercial for the kids
We have the capabilities to decrease this suffering and pain nevertheless, we disregard the problem and do nothing at all, which can be immoral. We should modify our opinions of morality so as to develop a dedication to helping people in terrible need.
Population Growth is an issue that exists in today’s world that needs to be confronted before it becomes out of hand. The population itself has reached overwhelming numbers making it a problem that could turn to be dangerous. The amount of humans that the earth can support or the carrying capacity is slowly rising but at a much slower rate than the population growth rate. The increasing growth rate has its negative effects environmentally, agriculturally, socially, and economically and also has its positive effects nationally, and economically. The government is brainstorming and trying to come up with ways to decrease
“The Wreck of Time,” written by Annie Dillard, illustrates societies battle with population. Dillard emphasizes the disasters that savage our world. According to the author, “ By moderate figures, the dead outnumber us about fourteen to one. The dead will always outnumber the living.” (Dillard 168) The amount of natural or man-made catastrophes do not affect the population as much as we claim. Dillards opinions are supported with facts throughout her essay, but readers are still left to question, why is our world considered to be overpopulated? Perhaps it is time for our society to consider Earth is not overpopulated in terms of people, but in resources. In addition, humans are struggling to grasp that other ecosystems are also being affected. With the introduction of Darwinism (the theory of evolution, by natural selections), humans are programed with the mentality of “survival of the fittest” forcing our humanity to evolve. Although evolution proved to be beneficial, as our immune system and way of life improved, we sacrificed our natural resources along the way. The problem with our society is not the lack of knowledge, but the ignorance and selfishness within our society. Overpopulation, threatened by the lack of resources, intimidates humans to disrupt biodiversity as we know it. (1) Man-made changes jeopardize our biodiversity. (2) As a result, the Earth’s resources are being depleted due to rapid consumption. (3) Even though we lack resources,
Dr. Forsyth implements plenty of evidence as well as proven statistics to back up his outlook on these issues. The growth of human population is happening at an exponential rate, implying that in a short period of time population growth will double. “We find it difficult to comprehend exponential growth, but it may prove to be our fatal blind spot” [3]. When analysing the world’s population over a long period of time, it took roughly 19,000 years for the world’s population to go from 5million people to 500 million people in 1500 A.D. [4] With an estimated population of 7.5 billion people [5], for a period less than 1000 years, population increased more than 1500 times its size than it was in the 1500’s. In addition, on a more minute scale of time, in 1950 the world’s population was roughly 2.5 billion people [6] in merely 50 years the world’s population has tripled. With these statics, it is evident that the world’s population is increasing at an incomprehensive rate. With populations at their peak, overconsumption is another problem this world faces, as Dr. Forsyth affirms “humans consume far more than their fair share of the Earth’s natural productivity.”[7] Due to this over consumption of resources, there is a vast demand for cheap food which results in the clear cutting of large forest to generate room for new plantations of food. When doing so, humans destroy habitats that
The argument that “the greatest threat to one’s own humanity is indifference to the suffering of others” is accurate, because compassion for each other is what brings one’s humanity closer together.
No matter how many people do claim overpopulation is not a relevant issue, it very much is because of the simple fact that starvation and pollution are very real and existing issues that are ultimately offset by overpopulation. In an article titled “Overpopulation Is Not the Problem,” author Erle C. Ellis uses the analogy “Like bacteria in a petri dish, our exploding numbers are reaching the limits of a finite planet, with dire consequences,” to argue that overpopulation is not a problem by stating the opposing claim. “We are nothing like bacteria in a petri dish,” Mr. Ellis solemnly asserts, “...these claims demonstrate a profound misunderstanding of the ecology of human systems. The conditions that sustain humanity are not natural and never have been. Since prehistory, human populations have used technologies and engineered ecosystems to sustain
NGS integrates greenhouse into other major policy initiatives, such as the Natural Heritage Trust, and launches new measures to increase greenhouse emission reduction activities across the Australian community. It provides the strategic framework for an effective greenhouse response and for meeting current and future international commitments. It will provide a fresh impetus for action by governments, stakeholder groups and the broader community and set directions for that action into the next century.
“To what extent should we take care of others and to what extent should others take care of themselves.” A question we ask ourselves and each other almost every day as we are challenged with many ethical questions and situation that provoke the public opinion of how much is too much, and how much is not enough. The topic at hand is very delicate, for we’re about to discuss a very profound subject that might as well keep us up at night attempting to make sense of it. Questioning our ethics as human beings who should be doing everything we can to help those in need is the first step. And while we do so it is also imperative to outline and recognize what doing “everything we can” entails and when “everything” reaches its absolute limit.
Stuck in traffic, having moved only a couple of feets in the last five minutes, you ask yourself, are there too many people on this planet? Human population has been growing exponentially ever since the Industrial Revolution, and there seems to be no end to this catastrophe. More humans make more pollution, more erosion, more destruction of forests, more extinction of wildlife, more depletion of natural resources, and so on. United States’ funding for family planning to cut down the population has flatlined for several years, although it would take relatively little money to make a big difference. If all the unintended pregnancies came to a halt, there would not be a significant growth in the number of people as birth rates and death rates
It stands to reason that the planet we live on has a finite limit of resources: water, air, and land. More people mean more industry, which means an increase in the resources we consume and the more emissions we produce. There is also evidence to support theories regarding human contribution to global warming and climate change.
U.S. Conditions like Florida and other states with a high range of hot spells are perfect
Imagine you are placed into the future. The year is 2100. You begin to live in this
Earth, home of billions of people and thousands of different animal species, under goes changes every night and every day. Some changes take years to be noticeable and others can be noticed right away. Climatic warming, also known as global warming has been causing changes that Earth and its inhabitants have been dealing with over the years. Climatic/global warming is the average temperature of Earth's near-surface air and ocean over a period of time. Earth is similar to a green house because a green house traps the radiation of the sun and helps the plants grow, and Earth contains gases called greenhouse gases that create a “blanket” and trap the radiation and the heat given out by the sun. What happens when too much heat is being trapped
The Earth is a dynamic, constantly changing environment in which the hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere all interact. When one changes slightly the change is then felt through out the spheres. Humans need to understand that the change they cause can have a potential for a disastrous affect on the environment. From injecting the atmosphere with greenhouse gas, or deforestation, all the unnatural things done to the environment will have an unnatural affect that will have to be dealt with. We as humans have a moral responsibility to reduce global warming gasses by changing our modes of transportation, to stop deforestation, and increase government funding into research to inhibit global warming for
An environment is a system of living things. The Earth is our environment. The capacity of our environment to offer space, to reap nutrition and to fund energy are all limited. Food, water and other basic assets are strained by the escalating requests of our persistently developing population. We rely on these limited resources for our survival, yet we are quickly extending our population as though they were infinite. This reality is at the focal point of our environmental issues. Despite the fact that the number of inhabitants on earth has been escalating in a continuous manner since 1400, the most emotional increment has taken place in more recent decades. Overpopulation is a standout amongst the most concerning troubles in present times. It is an “undesirable condition where the number of existing human population exceeds the carrying capacity of Earth.” (1) There is a natural point of confinement to the population size that can be reasonably maintained by an environment. Overpopulation is the undesirable condition where the amount of the existing human population exceeds this natural limit and eventually devours our planet with the request for more nutrition from less land and water supplies. As the total population develops, enhancing expectations for everyday comforts and improving living standards without destroying the Earth is a global challenge. Our world population is growing at about eighty million people a year, which equates to an average of two-hundred and