Population Growth: It will Kill Us
By: Connor Beath
How Will It Kill Us?
- We emit wastes as a product of our consumption activities, including air and water pollutants, toxic materials, greenhouse gases, and excess nutrients may threaten human health.
- People are living in unsafe places because there is nowhere else to live and its putting their lives at risk. People are living in dirty places and getting illnesses and dying.
- With all of the people in the world. There is not much food to go around for everyone because we are also killing the arable land to grow crops.
Pollution
This is what the Earth will look like if we don't do something about it and be a health advocate.
Water
This water looks good but many countries aren't getting the amount they need because we are destroying the Earth's drinkable water.
Deforestation
We keep cutting down forests which will ruin the ozone layer, and not give all the people the food that they need to survive.
The Environment?
- The drought, now in its fourth year, and with a population now close to 39 million and a thirsty, $50 billion agricultural industry, California has been affected more by this drought than by any previous one.
- “Trends such as the loss of half of the planet’s forests, the depletion of most of its major fisheries, and the alteration of its atmosphere and climate are closely related to the fact that human population expanded from mere millions in prehistoric times to over six billion today,” says Robert Engelman of Population Action International
- In the U.S.alone, sprawl destroys 2.2 million acres of farmland, ranch land and forest every year.
What Can We Do?
- To reduce population growth people need more job opportunities and gender equality. When women have jobs they tend to have less children because they are busy. CREATE MORE JOBS!
- We need to NOT pressure people to have kids if they prefer to have only a few or none. We need to get rid of the social norms and allow families to do what they wish. DONT LISTEN TO WHAT OTHER PEOPLE SAY!
- Many steps toward sustainability can be taken today. These include: using energy more efficiently, managing cities better, phasing out subsidies that encourage waste
- Slowing population growth would help improve living standards and would buy time to protect natural resources. In the long run, to sustain higher living standards, world population size must stabilize.
Sources
- Fountain, Henry. "California’s Cycles of Drought." The New York Times. The New York Times, 13 Apr. 2015. Web. 14 Apr. 2015.
- Mazur, Laurie. "Best Population Size? - The Big Picture." The Big Picture: Population Facts, Problems and Solutions. Institute for Population Studies, 2010. Web. 10 Apr. 2015.
- "Overpopulation:." Effects of Overpopulation on the Environment and Society. Institute for Population Studies, 1 Feb. 2009. Web. 06 Apr. 2015.
- "Population and the Environment: The Global Challenge." Actionbioscience. American Institute of Biological Sciences, Oct. 2010. Web. 06 Apr. 2015.
- Talk, Earth. "Global Population Growth Creates Environmental Problems." Larry West, 2015. Web. 10 Apr. 2015.
- "Unit 5: Human Population Dynamics // Section 5: Population Growth and the Environment." The Habitable Planet Unit 5. Annenberg Foundation, 2015. Web. 10 Apr. 2015.