...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...
Words: 724 - Pages: 3
...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...
Words: 9299 - Pages: 38
...Environmental Science and Environmentalism ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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...
Words: 1412 - Pages: 6
...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...
Words: 1083 - Pages: 5
...Human Overpopulation Not that long ago, humans were still struggling to survive in a world plagued with diseases, predators, and unknown dangers. The harsh natural environment functioned to keep our population growth in check. However, since the last century, the human population had grown exponentially. Our survival is no longer threatened by other species and harsh environmental conditions. In fact, there is a new concern for the modern society—overpopulation. According to The American Heritage Science Dictionary, overpopulation is “The population of an environment by a particular species in excess of the environment's carrying capacity”. In addition, “the effects of overpopulation can include the depletion of resources, environmental deterioration, and the prevalence of famine and disease”. In the case of human overpopulation, human is the species that is in excess of the Earth’s carrying capacity. If human overpopulation is in fact a legit concern, then the effects mentioned in the definition above would most likely follow in the distant future. In order to prevent the negative consequences of overpopulation, humans must understand what specifically caused the population growth, how does population growth affect the world, what are the implications of overpopulation, and how to mitigate the effects of overpopulation. Although our population is a huge number compared to what it was in the past, we cannot conclude that we are overpopulated based on that comparison. In...
Words: 1204 - Pages: 5
...little bit every year and soon, if the population trend continues at the current rate the sustaining capacity will have reached its peak. The ignorance of humanity has lead all to believe that the planets resources are infinite well, I'm here to tell you that research, study, and observation has proven that it is in fact very finite. The population explosion has its roots in developing countries such as China and India, the two most populous countries in the world. The basic fact is people are having more children than their surrounding environment can support. Overpopulation is creating severe problems to the air quality, water supplies, and cropland sustainability; cultural views pose as road blocks to taking steps toward destroying this epidemic. Should the population continue at its current rate of expansion there will be an estimated 50 billion people on the planet by the dawn of the next century according to Arthur McCormack in his 1970 book The Population Problem (9). The question now is are we as a species destined to die from resource depletion or are there ways to stop this growth before it becomes a global catastrophe? Walter K. Dodds, author of Humanities Footprint, mentions the case of Easter Island as "One of the most dramatic cases of humans harming the ecosystems that support them"(35). The Polynesians arrived on an island paradise, but that paradise quickly turned into what could be termed a nightmare. The population quickly expanded and the Islanders...
Words: 1786 - Pages: 8
...acknowledged appropriately. Index: Page 1-2: Why the current trend in human population growth is a danger to our planet. Page 3-4: How we can solve the problem concerning the current trend in human population growth. Page 5: Ethical issues concerning population control. Page 6: Personal view on the issue. Page 7: Bibliography. “Is the current trend in Human population growth a danger to our planet?” Yes. The current trend in Human population growth is a serious issue, and, as of late, it has been the focus of numerous scientific debates and studies. Why is it a danger to our planet?...
Words: 2024 - Pages: 9
...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...
Words: 726 - Pages: 3
...TaVonna Daniel 4/30/15 Human Population growth, Natural Selection, and the tragedy of the commons Human Population simply means a number of people, living in a particular area country or region at a particular time. The current human population growth is something unknown in the history of the world. If we look back to the history of human population growth Birth rate expressed as number of births per one thousand per year currently also 13 in the U.S. but death rate expressed as the number of deaths per year are currently 8 in the U.S. So the rate of natural increase is 5 per thousand. Although the value is affected by both birth rate and death rate, the recent history of the human population has been affected more by declines in death rates than by in birth rates. The introduction of public health measures, such as better nutrition greater access to medical care improved sanitation more widespread immunization. The rapid growth of population is one of the greatest obstacles in the progress of developing countries. If the population grows fast, poverty cannot be eradicated. Progress made in the fields of agriculture, industry and technology fails to cope with the needs of a rapidly growing population and leads to poverty and unemployment. A high rate of birth and a decline in death rates have resulted in population explosions, especially in underdeveloped countries. The Census Report of 2001 states that while in Europe, the population growth rate is 0.3 per cent, in India...
Words: 374 - Pages: 2
...lightning and got me thinking about probably the world’s biggest problem, overpopulation. The photograph I saw was called Architecture of Density and it was taken by photographer and artist Michael Wolf. The photograph portrayed a massive building in Hong Kong that looked as if it was built to house thousands of people using the least amount of space possible. The apartment building seemed to be designed to have people crammed together with no room to move. Although Wolf’s main focus of his picture was to show viewers that the culture of Hong Kong starts in the homes of the people, I saw Wolf’s photograph as a look into the far more complicated issue of overpopulation, whose effects are currently felt worldwide and are slowly getting worse. Human overpopulation on earth is the leading cause of many of the planet’s problems. Overpopulation is defined as “excessive population of an area to the point of overcrowding, depletion of natural resources, or environmental deterioration”, (Answers). The problems caused by the overpopulation of humans range from the extreme of global warming/climate change, pollution, water shortages, desertification and depletion of other resources to other smaller problems such as deforestation, species extinction and overcrowding. However unfortunately, few governments or government officials around the world are willing to look at the big picture and instead try to solve the smaller problems such as global warming and climate change by looking at...
Words: 3637 - Pages: 15
...Human Population Is our planet getting too big? “Go Forth and Multiply!” That is what the human population has been doing successfully for thousand and thousand of years, expanding, exploring, migrating, conquering, utilizing, evolving, civilizing, industrializing, and now we are destroying the very land upon which we live. (Anup Shah) There are over six billion humans living on this planet and the numbers will continue to grow due to the birth rates and that humans are living longer so the death rates have declined. With the humans that inhabit our planet we will consume vast quantities of food and water, use a tremendous amount of energy and raw materials, and produce much waste which is harmful to our environment. If this trend continues to keep up at this pace we could end up using up our natural resources not to mention how much waste we will continue to accumulate because we are not recycling how we should. Not only will we end up using any available land it will cause havoc on the wildlife, which inhabits the land. With the humans using up the land forcing the wildlife out of there natural habitant we will start seeing more conflicts with animals and humans. The United Nations, which periodically publishes population projections for the twenty-first century have come up with some startling numbers, they have figured that in the year 2050 the world population will be between 7.9 billion (low estimate) to around 10.9 billion (high estimate), but most likely there will...
Words: 1958 - Pages: 8
...Hydrological cycle; Global climatic change and role and response of man in climatic changes, Applied climatology and Urban climate. iii) Oceanography : Bottom topography of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans; Temperature and salinity of the oceans; Heat and salt budgets, Ocean deposits; Waves, currents and tides; Marine resources: biotic, mineral and energy resources; Coral reefs, coral bleaching; sealevel changes; law of the sea and marine pollution. iv) Biogeography : : Genesis of soils; Classification and distribution of soils; Soil profile; Soil erosion, Degradation and conservation; Factors influencing world distribution of plants and animals; Problems of deforestation and conservation measures; Social forestry; agro-forestry; Wild life; Major gene pool centres. v) Environmental Geography : Principle of ecology; Human ecological adaptations; Influence of...
Words: 1084 - Pages: 5
...sustain human life. For that is the primary concern for humans. While it is important for us to bear in mind the sustainability of other life forms, when broken down those concerns go back to the concern for the survivability of the human race. To sustain the human race is very complicated procedure because of the multitude of variables that go into it. Humans obviously need food, water, and shelter. To provide food, there needs to be ways of distribution and production. Food also needs to be nutritious enough so that humans can perform necessary tasks and to remain healthy. Water is necessary for most biological tasks and is also used for many other tasks required in food production, mainly the growing of certain foods. Shelter is key because human’s survivability rate without protection from the elements is low compared to that of the humans who did have shelters. However, humans require more than these bare necessities to survive as a productive, for there is more to life than gaining the bare necessities. Humans are political creatures, in that they naturally tend to form social groups. Social groups increase the sustainability of the human race. They provide emotional and physical support, increase in food production, and easier access to shelter. However, the downfall of social groups is the increase in population growth. With social groupings, population growth increases without bound, we have yet to find a social grouping that has a population growth of zero...
Words: 546 - Pages: 3
...ton1.1 Major Themes of Environmental Science The study of environmental problems and their solutions has never been more important. Modern society in 2009 is hooked on oil. Production has declined, while demand has grown, and the population of the world has been increasing by more than 70 million each year. The emerging energy crisis is producing an economic crisis, as the prices of everything produced from oil (fertilizer, food, and fuel) rise beyond what some people can afford to pay. Energy and economic problems come at a time of unprecedented environmental concerns, from the local to global level. At the beginning of the modern era—in A.D. 1—the number of people in the world was probably about 100 million, one-third of the present population of the United States. In 1960 the world contained 3 billion people. Our population has more than doubled in the last 40 years, to 6.8 billion people today. In the United States, population increase is often apparent when we travel. Urban traffic snarls, long lines to enter national parks, and difficulty getting tickets to popular attractions are all symptoms of a growing population. If recent human population growth rates continue, our numbers could reach 9.4 billion by 2050. The problem is that the Earth has not grown any larger, and the abundance of its resources has not increased—in many cases, quite the opposite. How, then, can Earth sustain all these people? And what is the maximum number of people that could live on Earth, not just...
Words: 9003 - Pages: 37
...effect of overpopulation and over consumption on the environment has had a massive negative effect. Overpopulation is an undesirable condition where the number of existing human population exceeds the carrying capacity of Earth. We are now adding one billion people to the planet every 12 years. That's about 220,000 per day. (Howmany?.org) This makes overpopulation a big threat to our environment but the bigger issue is that we are not using our resources efficiently to solve the problem. The problem includes shortages of all our resources, war and social conflict, limits on personal freedom, overcrowding in large cities and the health and survival of other species. In the last fifty years, there have been a vast number of people and organizations rising up and speaking against this problem, searching for a solution to this detrimental issue. Howmany?.org is just one of many organizations that are empowering people to find the best population size for Earth. They do this through outreach and advocacy programs that are created to add population into conversations and get people thinking. While overpopulation is not the only cause of environmental problems, it is a root cause that people should be aware of. Growth in population, affluence, and technology are jointly responsible for environmental problems concerning overconsumption. We use technology to produce and gather most of our resources. While technology helps make life easier for most of us, it has a big negative...
Words: 2797 - Pages: 12
