Human Impacts on the Environment: Overpopulation
Please note: This may be a sensitive topic for some. I do understand and respect that this could be a sensitive issue for families and people without children.
Overpopulation is one way that humans are impacting the natural the environment. The cause of population growth throughout the world is because of advancements in science but this has also caused other unintended issues. In the year 1900, the world’s population was around 1.65 billion people, but by the year 2000 the world had surpassed 6 billion people on earth and it is predicted to pass 10 billion by the 2100. The growth in population and quality of life at birth through death has been contributed by advancements in medicine, access to food, water, education and health care. At the same time though people take up a lot of resources and space. With booming growths in population there is the need for more food production, more use land and more use of natural resources. It is great that we have found ways to better the lives of people but its coming at a cost to the earth. However, some studies have found the rate of population maybe slowing down thanks to advancements in the quality of life. One example is with more women working today in professional careers than were 100 years ago, families are having less children than they were before. One study out of Finland recently found that having just one less kid reduced a families average by 58.6 tons of CO2-equivalent emissions per year. Who ever thought having less kids could make you more environmentally friendly?
References:
Mortimer, Cathrine (2017, July 12). Having children is one of the most destructive things you can to do the environment, say researchers. The Independent. Retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/children-carbon-footprint-climate-change-damage-having-kids-research-a7837961.html
Current World Population (n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/
Follet, Chelsea. (2018, July 30). How Big Of A Problem Is Overpopulation? Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2018/07/30/how-big-of-a-problem-is-overpopulation/#3886ec18216a