Population growth is an essential point of concern for economic and environmental sustainability, which refers to how an ecosystem can remain diverse and productive to meet the human needs of the current and future generation. Destruction of natural resources has become a standard social issue affecting the world today attributed to the high population growth. The rapid population growth in the world is transforming sustainability through urbanization, industrialization and agricultural production. This population growth is causing environmental degradation that affects natural resources leading to environmental pollution, land degradation, and water shortages.
Population reference bureau estimates the population of the world to be 7.3 billion. In the last five decades, the world's population has doubled putting pressure on the ability of the planet to sustain all living things. Other studies have shown that by 2025, about 70 percent of earth resources would have been consumed by the growing population ( Godfray et al., 2010) . The main factors affecting population growth of an area are the birth rates, death rates, and migration. In the recent years, the high population growth has been attributed to high fertility and falling mortality. The new age saw governments devise ways that reduced the infant deaths but failed to put in place measures that would hold the population growth. As a result, the population of the earth escalated within a short period to unsustainable levels.
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This population growth is characterized by an increasing divergent across regions where developing countries are characterized by high population growth while the developed nations have population decline and rapid population aging. Malthusian theory of population can be used to examine the relationship between population growth and availability of resources to sustain human consumption. Malthus formulated the approach with the popular hypothesis that population growth tends to follow the availability of a means of subsidence, in this case, food, until a point where the availability of resources is not enough to cater for the increasing population ( Snowdon, 2008). This theory can be used to understand the consequences of high population growth on the availability of natural resources to support human existence.
How population growth affects sustainability
Consumption
Rising levels of consumption per capita have characterized the growing number of people. This has led to the depletion of natural resources and the degradation of the environment. As the human population grows, the consumption of natural resources increases. This is because a higher population leads to use of more freshwater, need for more products from an industry that leads to depletion of natural resources to provide the raw materials as well as a need for more land for human settlement. A high population requires increased food for consumption through more fishing, more farming, and herding of livestock. However, since the available land is not enough to provide enough resources for human survival, people start encroaching into natural resources to create space for enough food.
An increasing population calls for consumption of more resources to maintain the living standards of people. However, the rate of resource depletion is higher than that of replenishing, which means the resources are limited. There has been a decreasing availability of natural resources to cater for human needs affecting the ability of the planet to sustain life. High population growth overwhelms the natural resources and aggravates poverty across the world ( Godfray et al., 2010) . Today the population of the earth is faced with limited natural resources. Water supply, for example, has continued to become limited due to the increasing population of the planet
Need for more land
The growing population puts pressure on the need for more land to cater for industrialization, urbanization and agricultural practices. Because of the rapid population growth, people have started to encroach into the previous natural resources in search of more land and resources for their sustainability. This need for more land has led to increased deforestation all over the world. Deforestation is the cutting down of trees and human-induced destruction of vast areas of forest in search of the limited land ( DeFries et al., 2010). It is one example of the threat of rapid population growth. Another danger is pollution and land degradation.
Need for Minerals
The need for minerals and metal ores has also led to mining activities that lead to land degradation. Agricultural lands that have mineral ores have been destroyed to make space for mining exploration. As a result, the operations displace human settlements, forcing them to encroach on natural resources such as forests to seek for agricultural land and space for human consumption.
Employment opportunities
High population led to the construction of many industries to provide employment opportunities. Industrialization refers to the process of transforming an economy from agrarian economy to an industrial based economy. It was characterized by setting up of numerous industries to manufacture and process products. Many industries have been popping to provide a form of employment and support the increased population ( Zhou, 2009). However, the need for raw materials to sustain industries has also contributed to increased deforestation across the world. Among the raw materials are tree products such as timber for the paper industry, as well as agricultural products for food manufacturing.
Production
Population growth also affects the availability of energy for production purposes. There is high demand for fuel consumption to power the industries and automobiles ( Zhou, 2009). The fuel comes from the mining of the natural resources such as natural oil and coal which puts more pressure on the resources of the earth.
Poverty
Poverty in the developing countries is also a factor when discussing the effects of high population growth that contributes to the depletion of natural resources. People rely on the natural resources to earn their livelihood due to poverty. This results in an unequal balance of resources with demand being higher than the supply and the human population density overburdening the ability of the earth to sustain them.
Impacts of population growth on natural resources
Land
The effects of high population on land include pollution and degradation. People are encroaching on forests, cutting down trees and leaving the land susceptible to harsh conditions. The degradation is reducing the productivity of the farms, increasing food insecurity and putting the population of the world at risk of hunger.
This degradation has also resulted in desertification in various parts of the earth. Desertification is as a result of human-induced activities and changes in the climate due to disruption from the high population ( Blaikie & Brookfield, 2015). The primary cause of desertification is the unsustainable abuse of resources including unsustainable agricultural practices and deforestation. Due to desertification, it is now challenging to produce enough food that can cater to the high population.
Governments have been building dams on rivers to create water for irrigation, electricity as well as industrial use. The dam construction plays a part in affecting the natural processes, causing specific areas of land to dry due to diverted waters. These results to desertification and puts particular species at risk of extinction. Some lakes have been shrinking in size due to dam construction, affecting the lives of individual animals that stay in water such as fish.
Additionally, lack of enough land has led to people farming on the same piece over and over, leading to nutrient depletion and land degradation. To evade this, farmers are making appropriate land improvements to sustain the agricultural practices by enhancing the soil fertility. They are using chemical fertilizers to push the land to the limit without protecting the land. These chemicals are contributing to environmental pollution that has adverse effects on the planet ( Blaikie & Brookfield, 2015).
Water
Water just like other natural resources is under threat of the rapid population growth. Water is a basic human need required for the sustainability of human life. This means its unavailability affects most of the necessities such as health, food security, and economic development. Water supply has become an issue for a variety of countries due to the unrestrained population growth, with developed countries having more access to water resources as compared to the developing nations. There are constant reports of famine and droughts in several parts of the world, with people struggling to get enough water to sustain life ( Vörösmarty et al., 2000) .
Reports have indicated that the human population is consuming water close to the limit of the planet, with about 54 percent of available fresh water on earth being underconsumption. This means more the water bodies such as rivers and lakes are under pressure to have enough water that can sustain the ecosystem and maintain their functional viability. Access to clean water in areas such as sub-Saharan Africa is not a guarantee because of the infrastructure development not keeping up with the population growth. The water shortages lead to sanitation issues that place people at risk of health-related conditions such as fecal contamination. A lack of access to enough clean water causes unhygienic conditions that cause deaths to infants ( Vörösmarty et al., 2000) .
The high population growth has also contributed to water pollution across the globe. Sewage and industrial wastes are adding to over 90 percent of water pollution. The wastes are dumped into the water surfaces thus polluting its supply and affecting its quality. Additionally, unsustainable agricultural activities such as the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers from human-induced activities have contributed to water pollution affecting its supply.
Air
Population growth affects the atmosphere through increased carbon emissions. The emissions may arise from the burning of fossil fuels to generate power for industries as well as through automobile combustion. This carbon pollutes the environment and contributes to global warming by trapping heat in the atmosphere ( Alam et al., 2016). Thus more heat is trapped within the atmosphere. Climate change is as a result of human population encroachment into the natural resources interfering with the ecosystem. Some of the causes of climate change include industrial pollution and deforestation. The air pollution is also dangerous to human health by causing a variety of respiratory diseases.
Environment and ecosystem
A healthy environment is an asset for all humans and other species existing on the surface of the earth. This is because every living organism depends on the environment for life and sustenance. The environment provides the necessary resources needed for life such as water, food, energy, and biodiversity. High population growth across the word affects the quality of the environment and the ecosystem. Cutting down trees in search for agricultural land and human settlement leads to changes in the environment and the climate. This increasing pressure on land leads to habit destruction, and in the long run, it plays a crucial role in environmental unsustainability
The rapid population growth also affects the ecosystem and its ability to sustain the living organisms. The ecosystem comprises of living things such as animals and plants as well as non-living things such as water, land, and air. Some of the impacts of rapid population growth include water pollution, floods, droughts, desertification and soil erosion. It has also contributed to the extinction of wildlife. Several species of animals and birds have declined because of habitat destruction. There are also cases of humans hunting down several of these species for their materials such as rhino and elephant horns or meat, thus putting their lives in danger.
Conclusion
In conclusion, population growth is putting pressure on the resources of the world thus affecting the ability of the earth to sustain life. It is responsible for the degradation of nature and the natural resources. It has led to rural, urban migration and the sprouting of many urban centers that puts more pressure on availability of land. Urban centers also contribute to high rates of pollution. Many people have automobiles whose combustion pollutes the environment ( Alam et al., 2016). Sewages from such areas often pollute water while many industries located in urban centers causes pollution to the air.
Population growth is closely related to the degradation of natural resources and declining of agricultural productivity. Achieving economic and environmental sustainability is a hard task with the increasing population growth since sustainability and population growth cannot be separated. The interaction between human population and the environment have been viewed mechanistically with population growth affecting sustainability practices. Therefore, there is need to make plans and policies that control population growth and saves the planet. Governments should put in place measures that reduce high population growth as a way of preventing the planet from extinction. The plans should also consider other ways of
References
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Blaikie, P., & Brookfield, H. (Eds.). (2015). Land degradation and society . Routledge.
Vörösmarty, C. J., Green, P., Salisbury, J., & Lammers, R. B. (2000). Global water resources: vulnerability from climate change and population growth. Science , 289 (5477), 284-288.
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Alam, M. M., Murad, M. W., Norman, A. H. M., & Ozturk, I. (2016). Relationships among carbon emissions, economic growth, energy consumption and population growth: Testing Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis for Brazil, China, India, and Indonesia. Ecological Indicators , 70 , 466-479.
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Snowdon, B. (2008). Towards a unified theory of economic growth: Oded Galor on the transition from Malthusian stagnation to modern economic growth (No. 2008-4). Working Paper, Brown University, Department of Economics.
