The Human Population Growth and The Environment on The Planet Earth

At some point thousands of years ago there were only a handful of human beings on the earth. As these people found comfortable climates to live in with fruits and vegetables to pick and eat they were able to live and multiply. As herds of other animals came to eat their food supply, the humans would chase them off. As this continued, humans learned and experimented with different ways to deal with invading animals, such as throwing rocks at them. This most likely evolved into creating spears to kill them more easily. But this lead to rotting carcasses that stunk and lead other animals around to eat them. This most likely lead man to burn up the animals they speared down on the village camp fire to get rid of the body, but as the animals cooked over the fire, they realized sometimes they would smell good aromas instead of bad ones coming from the animals, so they tried tasting them and began eating them. This opened the door to more food supply as man become both hunters and gathers of food. As the tribal men were able to bring more food in to the village, they decided to make more babies with the woman since they knew they could feed them. This lead to steady population growth and the spreading out of humans over more and more land. As the men argued who is in charge, they appointed kings over lands so everyone would know who is in charge. As time went by, kingdoms grew and more kingdoms where created in new places. Mankind became better farmers and traders to sustain larger populations and communities. As long as man could find reliable fresh water sources and build sufficient shelters for themselves, the population would keep growing. If food and water sources grew scare, the population would stop increasing. If the climate changed such as having repeated harsh winters, the death rates would rise and the population levels would stop growing. This could lead a tribe to move on in search of a more suitable climate to live in. Wars and natural disasters would also lead tribes to move on in search of more favorable living areas.

Population ecology is the study of population change over time. A population may consist of a nation, a city, or a specific geographic location or region. Population density refers to how many people live in a certain area. For example, a city that has multi-story condos, apartments, and houses very close to each other is going to have a high population density. Where the houses are spread out, and there are no multiple level residential structures, the population density will be lower. The advantages of high population density is that people are close by so they can work together to easily. A disadvantage is if there is a natural disaster in a high density area, their will more likely be more deaths, which affect the population. Another factor to consider is the population age structure. If 90 percent of the population is over 60 years old, than it is a safe bet to assume over the next 20 years there is going be a drastic population decrease. But if 90 percent of the population is under 30 years old and the life expectancy is still 80 years of age, you can fairly safely assume that the population is only going to increase for the next 50 years.

As man became more technologically advanced, the human population has grown much faster. For example, in the 1920’s, cars first became mass produced for the public to buy. This gave mankind a way to travel around a lot more, and a lot more easily. This gave people the ability to roam around more and look for more favorable areas to live. Easier access to more favorable living environments led to population increase. The Automobile also gave mankind the ability to get medical assistance much more quickly when needed as doctors and medical personal could drive to the patent quickly. This saved lives and slowed the death rate, therefore allowing the population to increase more. Vehicles also gave man the ability to transport cargo a lot easier. Allowing building materials to be transported to more areas much easier. This gave the same number of men the ability to build homes in a lot larger geographical area, allowing the community to spread out and expand.

Medical technology has advanced in numerous ways, curing diseases and creating preventable care. This has allowed people to live longer, slowing down the death rate of human populations. This is one factor as to why the human population has increased significantly. According to Reuters “researchers found that at 1,710 U.S. high schools with AEDs on site, nearly two-thirds of cardiac arrest victims survived. That compares with a typical survival rate of only about 5 percent when cardiac arrest occurs outside of a hospital.” (para 4). This is just one example of hundreds, perhaps thousands, that shows medical technology is saving lives, and therefore reducing the death rate, thus allowing the population to increase.

Modern culture has curbed population growth in some ways. For example, China has a one child law for those living in the cities, limiting each family to only one child. The Chinese government imposes fines or even forced sterilization if there citizens have more than one child. According to about.com the one child in China law “has been estimated to have reduced population growth in the country of 1.3 billion by as much as 300 million people over its first twenty years.” (para 2). In the U.S. there is an organization called Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood offers contraceptives and sex education. This organization helps limit unwanted pregnancies, which somewhat restricts the birth rate of communities.

Nutrition can play a role in population. Those who eat well tend to live longer than those who do not eat so well. According to CE collective evolution “The number one cause of heart disease is the food we consume.” (para 1) Communities that provide more healthy foods and educate their youth on the importance of a good diet will have healthier and longer life spans.

According to ehow, An ecological footprint is “a measurement of how much land, water and natural resources a person, city, country or humanity as a whole requires to produce the resource it consumes.” (para 1) Since the 1980’s humanity has been widening its footprint, thus taking more that it replenishes. If the human population continues to grow as it is expected too, the cities will become bigger and produce more waste and consume more natural resources. This will create an even bigger ecological footprint, diminishing food supplies such as fisheries and clearing more forests for materials. Increased deforestation and human waste will cause massive environmental problems over the long run if left on checked. If this continues long enough, eventually the earth will reach its carrying capacity. If mankind’s ecological footprint becomes greater the earth’s carrying capacity, the population will run out of resources and many people of the population will have do without the resources needed to live. This will continue until the ecological footprint drops below zero. The major problem in all this is if the earth suddenly runs out of resources while the human population is at an all-time high and surpassing the earth’s carrying capacity, starvation will become so wide spread that it would cause a death rate so high that all civilizations would crumple and a near extinction of the human race would become inevitable.

Human population size must be taken into account and seriously considered when environmental restoration projects are implemented, otherwise overpopulation will just pollute it back up. The human population must also be taken into account when attempting to solve the oversized ecological footprint issue as well.

Human innovation can solve some ecological footprint issues. Recycling is a big player in reducing the amount of new resources the human population needs. Recycling reduces land fill and leads to less production of new items needed which can reduce waste and pollution. According to the ecology center “Recycling is vital to the health of our planet” (para 1) The better mankind gets at recycling, the less ecological foot print mankind makes, and therefore the more it can sustain a higher population without using up all the earth’s resources. Having people grow and eat local foods is an example of another innovation people can take part in. Growing and eating local foods eliminates the need to transport food long distances, which cuts down and carbon monoxide gas emissions in the air, and eliminates some of the packaging waste that goes along with transporting food.

In conclusion, the human race has been around a long time now, but for the first time in history, mankind’s population is approaching the limits in which the earth can support population growth. Human technologies are polluting the earth like never before in history. If human population growth and human caused polluting goes unchecked, mankind is headed right for disaster. But if mankind can come up with innovative solutions to over population and pollution, then mankind should be just fine for the next round of centuries to come.