Impact of population on environment
We humans are remarkable creatures. From our humble beginnings in small pockets of Africa, we have evolved over millennia to colonise almost every corner of our planet. We are clever, resilient and adaptable―perhaps a little too adaptable.
In 2015 the world population is more than 7.3 billion people. That’s more than seven billion three hundred million bodies that need to be fed, clothed, kept warm and ideally, nurtured and educated. More than 7.3 billion individuals who, while busy consuming resources, are also producing vast quantities of waste, and our numbers continue to grow. The United Nations estimates that the world population will reach 9.2 billion by 2050.
For most of our existence the human population has grown very slowly, kept in check by disease, climate fluctuations and other social factors. It took until 1804 for us to reach 1 billion people. Since then, continuing improvements in nutrition, medicine and technology have seen our population increase rapidly.
Human population has skyrocketed over the last few hundred years. In 1500 there were 425 million humans; in 2000, there were 6 billion; and today, in 2015, 7.3 billion.Human population has seen exponential growth over the past few hundred years. Data source: Our World in Data.
The impact of so many humans on the environment takes two major forms:
consumption of resources such as land, food, water, air, fossil fuels and minerals
waste products as a result of consumption such as air and water pollutants, toxic materials and greenhouse gases,(P&E, 2021).
Increasing numberal of people in many countries like developed nation such as USA, Russia and Korea leads to stiff competition on natural resources like land, forest, water and air which contribute much on several outcomes such as pollution, scarcity of habitat to wildlife as well as global climatic change occur
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