Environmental Issue: Population

HUMAN POPULATION AND EXPLOSION - ISSUES

The World population was only a few million people before the invention of agriculture and the domestication of animals. The following shows the alarming rate at which population has increased. It has been calculated that the human population is growing at a rate of 90 million per year. At this rate the population would reach 12.5 billion by the year 2050. If the population keeps going at this rate, after a few decades it will perhaps be too large for to be supported by limited resources available on the Earth. The rapid growth will affect living standards, resource use and the environment all over the world .

POPULATION EXPLOSION :

The rapid and dramatic rise in the World population has occurred over the last few hundred years. The World's population increased from 1.65 billion in 1900 to 3.02 billion in 1960 and reached 6.1 in 2000. Thus the size of the population nearly quadrupled in the span of 100 years, a historically unprecedented rate of increase. This sudden acceleration of population is called as POPULATION EXPLOSION .

REASONS FOR POPULATION EXPLOSION :

The main reason for slow and fluctuating population growth prior to early 1800's was the prevalence of diseases such as small pox, diphtheria, measles and scarlet fever. In addition, epidemics of diseases such as typhoid fever, cholera and plague eliminated large number of adults. High reproductive rates are balanced by high mortality.

Since the 19th century :

1. Discovery of vaccination provides protection to many of the infectious agents .

2.Discovery of antibiotic is a major breakthrough in the medical history,

3. Improvements in agricultural techniques,

4. Improvements in the nutrition and

5. Better sanitation and personal hygiene.

GROWTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT:

Increasing number of people put increasing number of demands on the environment, both through demands for resources and for the production of wastes. most of the human population survived through subsistence agriculture to meet their needs. After the modern medicines and the industrial revolution, the death rate plummeted and population growth increased. The impacts of rapid population growth on a population that is largely engaged in the subsistence agriculture are as follows :

1. People can subdivide farms among the children or intensify cultivation of existing land to increase production per unit area.
2. Open up new land to farm.
3. Move to cities and seek employment.
4. Engage in objectionable activities for income.
5. Emigrate to other countries legally.

The rapid population growth especially affects woman and children. Increasing the average wealth of a population affects the environment both positively and negatively...

SO WE BETTER BE CAREFUL ABOUT POPULATION GROWTH... 

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