7/31/2019 Looking at Population Growth and its Relationship to
the Environment and Natural Resources
2/3
Population Growth and the Natural Resources
The world is endowed with abundant land, water, agriculture,
forestry, and mineral
resources. With an existing ecosystem in which people are only
playing part of this complexity-
the increase of population has resulted to an increase of
depletion of these natural resources
consumed for the benefit of the human population. Statistics
proved that the human population
has currently using 25%i more natural resources than the planet
can sustain. As a result, habitats
and local communities are under pressure or direct threats.
As human population dominates the entire system, such domination
resulted to a drastic
growth of urbanization and further development of human
settlements. The need to provide a
bigger amount of resources primarily on food and shelter are
being extracted from a limited
amount of natural resources. As the world population continues
to grow, the need for people to
secure enough space for settlements- the consumption of land as
majority of agricultural lands
being converted to settlement areas played a vital issue.
Consequently, this occurrence
significantly affects other parts of the ecosystem, and thus
further to the growth of pollution as
climate change highlighted as one of the contributory effects of
this change.
The ever-increasing human population requires a significant
amount of resources for the
population to live and thrive. As we extract our limited natural
resources, alongside with it is the
displacement and invasion of other parts of the ecosystem to
their respective natural habitats.
The outraging increase of threatened and endangered species is
alarming, proving this scenario a
manifestation of the effects of environmental imbalance.
According to the World Wide Fund for
Nature (WWF), a non-government organization that promotes
environmental awareness, the
biological diversity of the world, humans extract an estimated
total of US$33 trillion, that
composed of environmental goods and services that includes
climate regulation, nutrient and
waste management, flood control, coastal protection, provision
of food, freshwater, fuel,
medicines, building materials, fertile soils and breathable
airii among others. Such environmental
goods and services provided by our natural resources have
estimated to be higher than the entire
world gross national product.
The biological diversity of the world- which families,
communities, nations, and future
generations is where we solely depend on. (WWF, 2009). It is the
link between all organisms on
earth, binding each into an interdependent ecosystem, in which
all species have their role. As the
world being dominated by the rapid growth of urbanization, this
phenomenon causes a greater
impact not only to the human population but to the entire
ecosystem as a whole. As the world
being linked to one another, what human population may have
caused to the entire natural
resource may have directly affected other complexities of the
ecology. As the population
increases, the amount of pollution is predicted to increase as
more people tend to contribute to
carbon consumption. Environmental degradation, as an observed
resultant of the overpopulation
has become evident in most parts of the world today.
7/31/2019 Looking at Population Growth and its Relationship to
the Environment and Natural Resources
3/3
Population Growth and the Environment
As humans directly related to the depletion of natural resources
stated by the WWFs
Living Planet Index which tracks nearly 4,000 populations of
wildlife, shows an overall fall in
population trends in 27% between 1970 and 2005, the increase of
human population has caused
drastic effects to the environment as a whole. The WWF stated
that in general terms, population
growth and our consumption are the reasons for this enormous
loss. As a result, the entire
biodiversity of the world has declined by more than 25% in the
last 35 years.iii This has resulted
to the use and abuse of our environment- therefore resulting to
pollution and the bigger effects of
climate change.
Looking on the data, population growth demands a bigger
requirement to the
environment to extract not only the basic commodities for human
consumption, but the services
and comforts that it provide for our daily living. The increase
of population has resulted to a
bigger demand for supply from the environment. In 2009, it is
said that humanity has used 40%
more resources than nature can regenerate in a year. Such abuse
is called ecological overshoot.
With a certain number of population, and given with an
unprecedented growth, the environment
can no longer sustain and replenish itself naturally for it to
provide the resources and the services
that we need. Such overshooting phenomenon posed a greater
threat not on the current
population but for the future generations as a whole.
Other than pollution and overshoot of natural resources, health
and sanitation is another
issue on the relationship of population growth and the
environment. As population increases, the
uncontrolled amount of wastes produced that is not being
disposed properly consequently affects
the health quality of human population and the entire ecology.
The European Commission
suggest that it is therefore essential to take into account the
scale of human population when
analyzing the effects of human density on biodiversity. The
effects of urbanization on species
richness have been magnified to this.iv And such analysis will
therefore contribute to sustainable
urban design and human well-being.
I iiArguments for Protection: Goods and Services. WWF
Global.
http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/how_we_work/protected_areas/arguments_for_protection/goods_services/.02/18/2012.
iiiWhat are the major reasons why we are losing so much
biodiversity?. WWF
Global.http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/biodiversity/threatsto_biodiversity/.
02/18/2012.
ivHow the Scale of Human Population Density affects
Biodiversity. European Commission Paper 2009.
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/research/newsalert/pdf/51na4.pdf.
02/18/2012.
