Why the Population Growth Is Such A Serious Problem and The Effect It Is Having on the Earth's Environment
The world's population has grown more in the last 50 years than it haddone in the previous 4 million years[1]. This quantum leap in the humanpopulation has put severe strains on the finite resources and the fragileenvironment of our planet. What is more, the present rate of the gallopingpopulation growth shows no signs of slowing down, especially in thedeveloping countries. Such a high rate of growth is clearly unsustainableand needs to be controlled before the runaway human population proves to bethe ultimate undoing of the human race itself. In this essay I shalldiscuss why the population growth is such a serious problem and the effectit is having on the earth's environment. Debate about the effects of population growth has raged ever since,Thomas Malthus, a British intellectual wrote his famous Essay on thePrinciple of Population in 1798. Malthus contended that the tendency forthe population was to grow exponentially while food supplies could onlygrow arithmetically. His theory meant that the human population wasdestined to outstrip the global food supplies that would eventually lead towidespread starvation and disease. This has clearly not happened[2] so far,
There are many other vitalresources such as water and energy that are being increasingly depleted dueto the growing population. Since the amount of water on the earthremains fixed, increasing population (that crossed the 6 billion mark in1999) means that by 2050, there would be only one-fourth fresh wateravailable per person than in 1950. (Brown et al 25) The effect of increased human activity on land such as clearing ofrainforests and agriculture,[5] also affect such delicate eco-systems asthe coral reefs. It is estimated thatif present trend of deforestation were not reversed soon, the world's percapita forested area would drop from 0. (Quoted byBrown et al, 6) The difference in the situation predicted by Malthus andthe present scenario is that large numbers of people starve, not due toshortage of food, but due to poverty. Over-fishing ofstarfish's predators in the oceans also contribute to the un-naturalincrease in the population of starfish. Although the dire Malthusian predictions of the devastatingeffects of population growth have not come true so far, the frighteningpace at which the human population is growing makes the worst-case scenarioa very real possibility. Water scarcity for large sections of theworld population means that there shall be a corresponding drop in foodproduction as a major portion of water is used for irrigation, particularlyin most Asian countries such as China, India and Pakistan. (Hardaway 1188) Despite adequate availability of food in theworld as a whole, the WHO reports that as many as 19,000 people (mostlyinfants and children) die each day from hunger and malnutrition. Thefalling water tables are almost certain to completely dry-up as theaquifers that hold water underground are not being charged at the rate atwhich they are being depleted. [6] Nearly 60 percent of the world's coral reefs are nowclassified as threatened. [3] Those who support Malthus' theory on over-population[4] Author of the book "Population and Technological Change. (Brown et al, 35) Pollution of the environment too is directly linked to overpopulation.
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