Sheer human numbers in some instances have a direct impact on the environment. For example, as the world population rises, the pressure mounts on the agricultural sector to feed the millions of extra mouths. Population growth, ecosystem services and human wellbeing by lynne gaffikin. It could reach 8 billion by 2025, 9 billion by 2040, and a whopping 11 billion by 2100.
Pdf the rapid increase of human population is putting an incredible strain on our environment. Although all of these issues have an impact on our society, overpopulation stands to have the greatest impact on our environment, due to the large masses of people and the limited resources. Many parts of the world also suffer from a shortage of food and water. Use the video lessons and quizzes in this chapter to explore the connections between a regions human. The sole social science journal focused on interdisciplinary research on social demographic aspects of environmental issues. Malthus famous hypothesis was that population numbers tend to grow. The human population is predicted to reach around 10 billion by 2050. The impact of human settlements on the environment. As might be imagined population growth has positive and negative effects on development. However, though some of these changes may be negative, humans also have the power to correct our mistakes and change our environment for the better. While population growth, of any species, may be beneficial to a certain extent, there may come a time when the number in the population exceeds the natural resources available to sustain it. What are the environmental impacts of human population.
Human health and environment the huge population pressurizes and degrades the environment physically, chemically and biologically. In particular, population density plays the most important role in shaping the socioeconomic environment. He does it due to his ability to exploit the natural resources beyond the limits of safety. It is not the census figures alone that need to be stressed, but an appreciation of the impact on natural resources of the rapid escalation in the. All life on earth obtains its food and other necessities from this environment. Variation in population growth is therefore not rooted in different levels of human development or broad cultural values, factors that could also affect the environment. Sohail, muhammad sagheer abstract insects are powerful and rapid adaptive organisms with high fecundity rate and short life cycle.
There are many solutions to this problem but the common factor is the human race. Due to human interruption in agroecosystem and global climatic variations are disturbing the insect ecosystem. As the global human population continues to grow, so too does our impact on the environment. This article originally published on 11618 and was updated on 52119 to include solutions to reversing the effects of overpopulation. Population dynamics, including population growth, density, urbanisation and migration, are important. The journal publishes cuttingedge research that contributes new insights on the complex, reciprocal links between human populations and the natural environment in all regions and countries of the world. How does the human population affect the environment. Effects of overpopulation onthe environment schooled by. As the population increases, the yield of food from farming will also have to increase or malnutrition and starvation will occur. Effect of human population on the environment essay 1273.
What is affecting our environment 29 what is affecting our environment 29 commonly, the relationship between human settlements and the environment is considered to be linear figure 3. One of the factors responsible for environment degradation is population growth or population density. At present, the global population has both the largest proportion of young people under 24 and the largest percentage of elderly people in history. Human impacts on the environment national geographic society. Effects of population on the environment chapter summary and learning objectives.
While developed countries continue to pollute the environment and deplete its resources, developing. By the rise in the human population, unlimited desire for luxury, and heavy dependence on technology hence, he contributes to the dangerous climate change which can lead humans to extinction. Overpopulation and the impact on the environment cuny. How can technology affect human impact on the environment. As young people are more likely to migrate, this leads to intensified urban environmental concerns, as listed above. Its effects are felt on the natural environment also. The interactions between human population dynamics and the environment. At one time or another, economists have suspected that population dynamics influence economic growth, employment and. Pimentel introduction a h e a l t h y and prudently managed environment is a major benefit to humans and other species. Population growth, ecosystem services and human wellbeing. What is the impact of overpopulation on the environment.
The factors such as population growth, environmental degradations, poverty and effects of climate change are been explored. The goal is to come to reasonable assumptions about what would happen if europes population grew more or less rapidly. The effects of human overpopulation have been documented in the history of easter island, where a human population with finite resources was nearly wiped out when their consumption increased beyond what the island could sustain. Different factors which plays a vital role are been discussed in detail. The environment on earth is suffering from the growth of global population. Help your students understand the impact humans have on the. As a result, the health of the people is adversely affected. The population of the planet is constantly increasing, and this growth can have many effects on the environment and the economy of the world.
According to united nations estimates, the urban population in asia will nearly double in the next 30 years. What is more concern, the number of population rise will increase to such an extent in future that it will cause overall scarcity for resources. No doubt, urbanization reduces pressure on the rural environment, but it brings with if environmental damages through industrial growth, emissions and wastes. The environmental implications of population dynamics. The rapid increase of human population is putting an incredible strain on our environment. If you plot this equation, you see a curve arching upward over time as the population increases exponentially, assuming no change in the rate. Human overpopulation or population overshoot is when there are too many people for the environment to sustain with food, drinkable water, breathable air, etc. Subsistence tends to exhaust local resources, with need to move to other open spaces less deplet. The effects of population growth are varied and vast. Effects of population growth, climate changes and poverty relationship article pdf available january 2016 with 19,869 reads how we measure reads.
The challenge for environmental management david pimentel, x. Environmental effects on insects and their population dynamics a. Changes like these have triggered climate change, soil erosion, poor air quality, and undrinkable water. One of the motives that drove to the spread of the virus was to wipe out human kind in order to. The recent resident evil the final chapter movie has the answer for thissort of. All indications are that the impact of human settlements on environmental resources is increasing. What is affecting our environment 28 what is affecting our environment 28.
Even as we tighten our grip on the environment, however, the escalating extent of anthropogenic actions destabilizes longstanding ecological balances 1, 2. Our surrounding includes biotic factors like human beings, plants, animals, microbes, etc and abiotic factors such as light, air, water, soil, etc. In more scientific terms, there is overshoot when the ecological footprint of a human population in a geographical area exceeds that places carrying capacity, damaging the environment faster than it can be repaired by nature. The state of health of people depends on clean environment.
Through human intervention, we have altered our ecosystem forever. Instead, our research objective is to assess the total effect i. Overpopulation is associated with negative environmental and economic. The growth of population puts larger demands on our already limited resources. The ingenuity with which our species has harnessed natural resources to fulfill our needs is dazzling. The impact of population growth on economic development is a complex issue. Humans impact the physical environment in many ways. The effect of population growth on the environment. The consequences of such an event are severe and major. Moreover, population does not have proper sanitation facilities and pure drinking water.
Impact of a growing population on natural resources. The growth of the last 200 years appears explosive on the historical timeline. When most people subsist hunter gatherer communities much more space is needed, ie lower population density. It it must refer to a specific word in the sentence or the reader can become confused. The formula for exponential population growth is nn 0 e rt where n 0 is the starting population, e is a logarithmic constant 2. With more people coming, how is this going to affect the. Human population growth and the environment an overview human population growth and the environment human population an explosive growth human needs limited resources our natural environment under attack roles of technology and engineering an uncertain future humans are recent arrivals earth 5 billion years multicell biota 600 million years.
An island once lush with diverse plant and animal species and fertile volcanic soil became nearly uninhabitable 1,300. Definitionenvironment the word environment is derived from the french word environ which means surrounding. Which of the following does not affect a persons quality of life. Although the global rate of human population growth peaked around 1963, the number of people living on earth and sharing finite resources like water and food has grown by more than twothirds since then, topping out at over seven and a half billion today, and human population is expected to exceed nine billion by 2050. One should be struck by the fact that here is a call for economic growth that is sustainable. However, no simple relationship exists between population size and environmental change. Effects of population growth on environment this is not the latest jackpot prize, but 6. Population, natural resources, and environment 115 unplanned urbanization primarily as a result of ruraltourban migration, asia is the fastest urbanizing region in the world. How is the environment affected by the growth of human population. The depletion of resources and biodiversity, the production of waste. Projecting global population human population continues to increase r has declined over last few decades 1960 r 2.
Humans have sought to understand the relationship between population dynamics and the environment since the earliest times 1, 2, but it was thomas malthus essay on the principle of population in 1798 that is credited with launching the study of population and resources as a scientific topic of inquiry. Even differences in fertility rates between urban and rural regions, which were prominent until the midtwentieth century, have almost disappeared. Population and environment connections council on foreign. Population is growing rapidly, far outpacing the ability of our planet to support it, given current practices. Global population growth creates environmental problems. Start the discussion today with the notion of sustainability. One has to ask if it is possible to have an increase in economic activity growth. The combination of increasing levels of population and consumption is changing the planets ecosystems at an unprecedented rate and scale, with rates of biodiversity loss posing a major threat to human wellbeing.
The composition of a population can also affect the surrounding environment. Humanenvironment interactions in population and ecosystem. Decades of economic expansion and population growth have degraded its land, air and water. Reflections on sustainability, population growth, and the environment page 3 and environmentally sustainable p. It has become increasingly clear that human populations have a powerful effect on. Human impact on the environment or anthropogenic impact on the environment includes changes to biophysical environments and ecosystems, biodiversity, and natural resources caused directly or indirectly by humans, including global warming, environmental degradation such as ocean acidification, mass extinction and biodiversity loss, ecological crisis, and ecological collapse. What are environmental problems due to population growth. If the human population continues to grow unchecked, the effects of overpopulation on the environment will leave us with a planet no longer be able to sustain us.
A number of theoriesoften subscribed to by demographersstate that population is one of a number of variables that affect the environment and that rapid population growth simply exacerbates other conditions such as bad governance, civil conflict, wars, polluting technologies, or distortionary policies. It is not the census figures alone that need to be stressed, but an appreciation of the impact on natural resources of the rapid escalation in the rate of increase of human population in the recent past. Effects of human overpopulation everything connects. Various diseases hiv aids, tb, malaria, water borne diseases. In this linear system, nature provides inputs to the human. Population and the environment the impact of population growth on economic development is a complex issue.
Environmental effects on insects and their population dynamics. The changes in human environment increases the incidence of many diseases. The expansion of human population and the requirements of our growing human family place strenuous demands on our environment. Abstract the environmental consequences of increasing human population size. Human population and the environment 215 3 to 4 billion, in 14 years. Human population as a dynamic factor in environmental degradation. These negative impacts can affect human behavior and can prompt mass migrations or battles over clean water. At the beginning of human civilization, before agriculture came to the fore, the world is thought to have had a total population of approximately. As the human population continues to explode, finite natural resources, such as fossil fuels, fresh water, arable land, coral reefs and frontier forests, continue to plummet, which is placing competitive stress on the basic life sustaining resources and leading to a diminished quality of life.