What are the various perspectives of <span title="population-resource-environment">population-resource-envir...</span> debate?

Question

What are the various perspectives of population-resource-envir... debate?

Answer 1

I will offer one perspective.

It is not far-fetched to say that almost all environmental and natural resource problems that we face in this modern world can be traced back to over-population.  For example:

Endangered species:  in most cases, species become threatened or endangered because of loss of habitat.  This loss is usually driven by human alteration of habitat for their own use, which in turn is driven by expanding populations.  A good example is India, where the vastly expanded population has resulted in the loss of almost all tiger habitat, threatening the survival of tigers in the wild.

Greenhouse gases:  More people driving more cars, using more electricity, heating more homes, all of which contribute to greater emissions of greenhouse gases.  There may be technological advances which will help with this (nuclear power, &quot;clean&quot; cars, etc.), but as long as fuel is burned for energy production (and not just fossil fuels, renewable fuels, when burned, release greenhouse gases as well), and as long as more and more people burn more and more fuel, this problem will continue to increase.

Toxic pollution:  More people, more farmland, greater use of pesticides.  Greater industrial production, more use of potentially toxic substances, and no matter how well the use of such substances is managed, some will always find their way into the environment.

Water pollution; more people flushing more toilets, and no matter how well the wastewater is treated, almost all of it ends up in rivers and streams and it has significant impact.  Not to mention the demands placed on dwindling freah water resources by more people using more water in the first place.

Bottom line......human beings tend to generate waste and pollution, and the more people there are, the more waste and poluution is generated.  Technology has not kept pace with the growth of this waste, and while more effort is being made to develop technology that will help manage the ever-growing waste streams created by humans, technology may never catch up with human population growth.