In 2011, the worlds population hit 7 billion. All around the world people were celebrating and enjoying the fact that our community, our society and our cultures were growing. Many news programmes focused on this once in a lifetime event and made sure that everyone knew that this was going to be a huge asset to the future of our earth, yet hardly any news stories showed any of the problems to do with population growth.
According to Index Mundi, there are around 4 births and 1 death per second per 1000 people on earth, meaning that there is over 80 million people added to our population every year. This shows one main thing – our population is increasing at an alarming rate. Whilst population growth is a good thing for the future of our planet, there are also some things which could be deemed detrimental.
Firstly, lets consider the current emissions of C02 that we produce. In 2013 there were 9.9 billion metric tonnes of C02 emitted all around the world, the highest it has been in over 8 years. As the population grows and the amount of traffic on the roads increases, so does the amount of C02 emitted into the atmosphere. It is worth noticing that higher emissions of C02 can cause many other problems such as a larger global footprint and global warming. More traffic on the roads also means more people will be at risk to respiratory problems such as asthma. Emitting a large amount of C02 can also threaten our ecosystems, resulting in the oceans acidity to rise even more than the 30% it already has in recent years.
Secondly, there will be a lot more waste in the future, with hardly any space to dispose of it safely due to the very high need for housing. As a lot of land is being turned into areas to live in, rubbish is being fly-tipped and thrown anywhere. Not only will this be not aesthetically pleasing at all, it will cause harm to the animals living near by who might rummage through the rubbish. With this in mind, sustainable development will become a lot harder to achieve and future generations will have a much harder job of keeping the earth as nature intended. If all areas on land intended for rubbish use have been filled, the only other option will be to start disposing our waste into the sea which will cause much harm to the wildlife and animals and may even cause the extinction of some species.
As more and more space on earth is used to create housing and areas for people to enjoy or work, room to build is slowly running out. As the need for room increases, drastic measures are being taken to make sure that people have places to live. The demand for other products such as wood also increases as the population expands and over 150 acres of rainforest are lost every minute to make way for more construction sights. However even though there are processes being taken to gain room on the earth, there will always be places which are not safe to live in, yet are built on anyway. The amount of slums and shanty towns will increase as the population rises, meaning the amount of people in poverty will escalate and the amount of people without food and clean water will rise. This may mean that famine will become a large problem all around the world. This could also lead to homelessness as well as the fact that even though the population will rise, the amount of jobs available may not and if this is the case, some people may turn to crime as a way to access money.
Finally, one of the main problems with population growth is the fact that our resources will run out a lot quicker than we could ever imagine. As the rainforest is cut down to make room for housing, the amount of oxygen in the air will decrease and the air quality will fall. Fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil will become exhausted as countries compete for the earth’s resources and it will only be a matter of time before people will have to devise new ways of harnessing alternative types of energy, such as hydro power and wind power which wouldn’t involve fossil fuels. According to The Guardian, this may happen slightly earlier than expected as ‘European countries are facing fossil fuel shortages and many nations will become entirely dependent on energy imports in the next few years.’
In conclusion, the ever growing number of people living on this planet is going to affect the way in which the earth performs. This could either be for the better or for the worse, depending on what we as individuals do about it. Simple and easy things that you could add into your daily routine such as turning the taps off when brushing your teeth to save water and using both sides of a sheet of paper to stop so many trees getting cut down can really help save the environment. It’s the little things we can all do like this that future generations will one day see the benefits of, meaning that they will enjoy the world in the way that we are enjoying it now.
saskiasteelswright 