Abstract
The global human population is explored through a variety of sources that provide insight into concerns such as overpopulation. Notably, challenges such as climate change necessitate discussions on sustainability to determine how advances in public health systems can be matched with food security campaigns, and environmental preservation initiatives. Each source used provides a unique perspective on the topic. Moreover, empirical studies provide information that facilitates the advancement of knowledge on the issue of human population. Essentially, empirical studies are considered because they provide information which is relevant to the establishment of evidence-based practices related to human population and sustainability. Clearly, overpopulation is a real threat to preserving the diversity within ecosystems. Through the collection of critical information on the subject, innovative solutions can be achieved. Developed nations with a relatively larger population representation have to be involved in sustainability interventions, implying that regions such as the United States are key determinants of population management.
Keywords: Population Growth, Sustainability
Literature Review
Human population is an essential factor, this determining the state of human welfare and viability of the natural world.One of the most significant concerns for the current generation is improving their well-being and that of the world and consequently sustainable human development, a factor that makes overpopulation one of the most dangerous issues in the world today. According to Reuss (2018),overpopulation has an environmental and economic effect, an increase in the world population associated with a rapid decrease of available resources, this compounded by neglect towards resource management. The Earth’s population is over 7.5 billion people today and increasing at a rate of 80 million people a year, which is approximately 220,000 in a single day, meaning if the current trend continues, there will be about 9.2 billion people in the planet (Reuss, 2018).
Such drastic increase in the number of people in the world leads to a scarcity of natural resources and an exponential degradation of the environment and critical resources such as water and energy. The United States, along with China and India are some of the most populated countries in the world, the United States of America, in particular, experiencing rapid population growth. As this population increases, there will be an over-use of natural resources, and as they are linked, overuse of one will lead to a strain on the others making the planet unsustainable.
Martinez (2016) explains that overpopulation occurs when the density of a region increases to a point whereby it can no longer adequately support the population, which is the carrying capacity, leading to a decline in the quality of life, environmental deterioration, or population collapse. Homo sapiens had existed on earth for around 100,000 years and was not until the year 1804 when it reached one billion and edged past the earth’s carrying capacity in the mid-1970’s at 4 billion people. Here, Martinez explains that the state of the population today would require 1.6 piles of earth to adequately sustain the existing population, the high rise owing to improved health care and consequently reduced the mortality rate (Martinez, 2016).
An increase in the human population is bound to have a significant effect on the environment. For example, the more people exist, the more garbage will be produced, this leading to increase in toxic residues being deposited in the ground, water, and the air. For example, States such as Massachusetts and Rhode Island have been identified to be on the verge of reaching their limit of garbage space (Martinez, 2016). Topsoil degradation is also an effect of overpopulation, causing a reduction in food production. In this way, an exponential increase in human beings without intervention is bound to damage the environment further and cause global warming resulting from an increase in greenhouse gas release in the atmosphere.
Overpopulation is reaching an unsustainable level in the world today, with resources such as water, food, and fuel continually decreasing. This challenge is already affecting more than 750 million people in the world today, these having no access to potable water, and an additional 2.5 billion lack proper sanitation. Food production is also becoming a challenge, forcing the people to adopt extensive farming to sustain the high number of people. According to Kazemi and Ghorbanpour (2017), the increased use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers are high pollutants in the world today, contaminating water and soil and consequently threatening other life forms and crops.
Since the industrial revolution, the human population has significantly increased, prompting the upcoming of new factories these with the aim of supporting the high population. In the 19th century and 20th century, coal has been used to run industries, a fuel that negatively affects the environment, carbon fuel also used to facilitate transportation of the human beings (Kazemi & Ghorbanpour, 2017). These represent some of the main problem human beings impact on the environment, problems bound to further increase due to the constant increase in the population of the world.
Kopnina and Washington (2015) explain how the expanding population has become a threat to humanity, undermining the resource base. However, regardless of the adverse effects of overpopulation being widely discussed and identified amongst the ordinary people, the topic remains shunned in the relevant political and academic fields, with critics claiming there is no global overpopulation issue. The issue has been divisive amongst the people primarily between the northern and southern communities, with some governments trying to boost their population believing that growth in population is bound to stimulate the economy or give them a political and economic advantage over their other rivals in less populated neighborhoods. Another element making the issue of overpopulation be overlooked s a perception of the sacredness of human life.
With some traditions and majority of Christians such as Roman Catholics believing every sperm is sacred, the conservative ideasof procreationinfluence communities and governments. Societal beliefs and norms have played a huge role in undermining the efforts to address the growing population issue.According to Kopnina and Washington (2015), the very fact that people love babies, for example,make it hard for the relevant people to address the issue of overpopulation, factors that have made it hard to implement family planning efforts.
Studies conducted reveal that the scale of human population and its pace of growth today led to loss of biological diversity in the world today, and with natural ecosystems and biodiversity having an intrinsic value to human life, the increase would lead to a detrimental effect on the environment (Crist, Mora, & Engelman, 2017). It is therefore essential to develop policies that seek to address the high population of the world and reduce the impact of human beings, protect biodiversity and human welfare. Crist et al. (2017) define one of the ways of addressing the population question is by prioritizing the demand, that is aiming for the achievement of a sustainable world through the provision of high-quality life to all people while at the same time safeguarding the biodiversity of the earth.
One central element in this drive would be to stabilizing human population. Excessive consumption is arising due to the rapid growth of the [population, the excessive utilization of the environmental resources leading to its deterioration and consequent adverse effects to the people, environment, and the world at large (Crist et al., 2017). A strict observance of the population also means the extensiveagriculture would not be practiced, and encroachment of environmental biomes and ecosystems will be no more, creating a more stable environment.
The global population is changing annually and there exist varied methods of explaining the trends as well as the expected trends in the future. Lutz and Qiang (2002) explain the influxes in population growth by using the demographic transition. According to the authors, in the early 1990s, there had been a reduction in the population in some countries, but the trend was constant in Africa with a constancy of six children per woman. The reduction in the population is mostly associated with high-income countries and can be explained using the demographic transition. According to the conventional theory of demographic transition, improved living standards are accompanied by advanced health conditions, which result in a decline in the mortality rate followed by a reduction in the fertility rate.
The theory avails an explanation of the variation in the population trends in a global scale with the industrializing countries having a higher population growth rate compared to the high-income countries. The high-income countries have a low fertility rate, which should be applicable to the low-income countries so as to ensure a leveled reduction in the global population rate. According to Lutz and Qiang (2002), with an increase in industrialization the global population growth rate is expected to fall in the future. The authors also point out that universal education, availability of family planning services and investing in reproductive health, and also perusing socioeconomic variables can be important in reducing fertility in the low-income nations.
Human beings vary from the other species and having an insight into the total encompassment of the global human population is a daunting task. Salmony (2006), documents that “the theory of human population number can be useful in the understanding the human population”. Salmony withdraws the conclusions from research which holds to the notion that the growth of human population is a rapid cycling positive feedback loop in which the population growth is driven by food availability creating an impression that there is a need for increasing food production. There is a global population rise of about 2% annually and the perceived need for increasing food production is the root cause for the heightening of the global population (Salmony, 2006).
According to this theoretical perspective, the increase in food production does not end the hunger in the world, it only contributes to an increase in more hungry people. The author avails a comparison to the nonhuman species number remaining constant as a result of the failure in increasing food production. In totality, the document points out that the cause of global overpopulation is based on the attempt to increase food production. The author also links the population growth to some damages such as environmental degradation and loss of biodiversity.
The National Research Council (1994) points out that population distribution and growth can be determined by three factors; migration, mortality, and fertility. All the three aspects are affected by global change. With this kind of perspective, there is a direct correlation between the changes in global population and the changes in the world. There exists an interrelation between population distribution, composition, and growth with the global climate change, land cover, and land use. Additionally, the population age structure may have an impact on the demand for resources. The National Research Council argues that population growth is composed of multiple factors and is not independent as documented by some authors.
Some global factors such as climate change may result in migration which may heighten the population of some places. Migration is perceived as the cause of most global changes and has a positive contribution to the increase in the global population. The information by the National Research Council is firm on the perception that the changes in global population are consequences of global change which affirms also affirms the theoretical perspective availed by (Salmony, 2006). With this kind of perceived interconnectivity, the council suggests a research on global change on population dynamics and population dynamic on global change.
The heightening of the global population has some damaging effects on the world. According to Bushnell (2010), the human activities result in climate changes and unless a faster intervention is sought there may be some detrimental impact on a third of the global population and this may include extinction. The author argues that carbon dioxide level is currently higher than it was in the past years and the rise is a result of human activities. The increase in carbon dioxide results in some climate changes including ocean acidification, loss of ice coverage and increase in temperature. The change in the global climate has had some damaging effects on the course of human history. Among the most prominent impact of climate change is the Permian extinction which resulted in decimation of animal life.
The Permian extinction was a consequence of a number of positive feedbacks (chain reactions) (Bushnell, 2010). According to Bushnell (2010), the chain reaction can cause temperatures increase which may result in ice melting, resulting in flooding of homes of a third of the global population. Additionally, there may be other secondary consequences prior to the flooding. Essentially, Bushnell (2010) documents some of the detrimental impacts of the heightening environment damaging activities as a result of a heightening human population.
There are varied opinions on the future of the global population. To some, there is a possibility of its reduction while to most, including William (n.d), the global population is expected to rise. Despite the rise in global population, there is an expectation of a reduction in its growth rate. The information availed by William add to the documentation by Lutz and Qiang (2002) on the demographic transition of the human population and its projection. Additionally, the authors state that the heightening global population results in resource depletion and is “the foremost cause of environmental degradation”. The depletion of resources is as a result of people taking from a common pool, “always making an unlimited addition to the limited world”. The worst part of the increase in human population is that it threatens the existence of other species and results in climatic changes. The author also affirms the postulation documented by Salmony (2006) by stating that ‘high population growth rate is a product of hunger and not its cause” more of the perceived need to increase food production is the cause of global overpopulation. According to William, the coercion methods of controlling the global population has failed, therefore, managing population increase calls for more diplomatic interventions such as access to employment opportunities, education, and reproductive healthcare.
References
Bushnell, D. M. (2010). Conquering climate Change: unless we act, the next century could see increases in species extinction, disease, and floods affecting one-third of human population. But the tools for preventing this scenario are in our hands.(2020 Visionaries). The Futurist, (3).
Crist, E., Mora, C., & Engelman, R. (2017). The interaction of human population, food production, and biodiversity protection. Science, 356(6335), 260-264.
Kazemi, A., & Ghorbanpour, M. (2017). Introduction to Environmental Challenges in All over the World. In Medicinal Plants and Environmental Challenges (pp. 25-48). Springer, Cham.
Kopnina, H., & Washington, H. (2016). Discussing why population growth is still ignored or denied. Chinese Journal of Population Resources and Environment, 14(2), 133-143.
Lutz, W., & Qiang, R. (2002). Determinants of human population growth. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 357(1425), 1197-1210.
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