Mankind Is Dangerously Harming the Environment

Introduction

 Concerning about the impact of mankind on environment was highlighted in the late 19^th century although it was not taken seriously by that time.  It was until 1960s that there were studies which highlighted the serious effects of mankind activities on the environment. In her book Silent Spring, marine scientist Rachel Carson highlighted the losses of species of birds due to continued use of pesticides. Paul Ehrlich in 1968 his studies The Population Bomb stated that problem that was posed by the increasing human kind population.  The rate of population growth is fast that the capacity of the world ecosystems. Therefore we can say that the rapid growth of humankind population is exerting pressure on the capacity of world to meet the demand of the growing population.

Rate of population growth beyond the earth’s limit

 In the last half of the twentieth century the world economy has grown by more than sevenfold. Economic growth has become the main target of majority of the governments in the world.  The current economic growth in the world is pegged on the available natural resource and the various economic activities require the use of existing natural resource. Notably fossil fuel which has more pollution effects on the environment. The increased use of fossil fuel has raised increased carbon dioxide emission by fourfold while the world natural absorbing capacity has not changed. In the last 50 years, the world economy has multiplied by sevenfold while at the same time the natural life support systems have remained the same. The demand for water has more than tripled while the hydrological cycles are constant.  (Brown, 2005)

Environmentalists have already marked that the changing pattern of climate would result to changes in agricultural output. As the population increases, food supplies are constraining and the population is faced by food scarcity. For example in 2002 and 2003, there was a shortage of more than 100 million tons of w grain which was the lowest in 30 years. The move by china to buy 8 million tons of wheat in 2004 marked the beginning of grain scarcity in the world.  However food production is likely to fall further with the increasing trend of change in environment. Increased soil erosion, loss of cropland due to increased land desertification, and other factor will continue to impact heavily on agriculture. Falling water table and rising temperature have reduced rate of irrigation and increased pest’s occurrence respectively.  (Brown, 2005)

As the world population increase by about 70million every year, feeding the population remains the greatest challenge. There has been overexploitation of the world natural resources to meet the demands of the growing population. The impact of the changing rainfall patter has been seen in the falling water lever in china, India and United States which hold half of the world’s population. World food security is tied to water security and therefore falling water levels have serious effects on provision of food.

Increasing world population has led to expanded economies. The expanding economies have increased rate of emission in the environment bringing about green house gas effect and global warming. In the last three decades the average earth temperature has increased by more than 0.7^o C. The expanding has replaced the arable land in countries like Japan and china due to rapid industrialization. This has led to reduced grain production in the two countries. In the coming year, the world population is expected to increase by more than 3 billion and the challenges ahead will be how to feed this population from the constant world resources. (Brown, 2005)

Conclusion

The world economy and the growing population is having negative impact on the capacity of the earth. This has been evidenced by the collapsing agriculture production, the shrinking world forest cover, the ever expanding desert, the rising level of carbon dioxide to the environment, the falling water table and melting glaciers, and other factors. These have been the effects of the activities of the increasing world population in support of their economics activities. These factors have an effect in feeding the ever growing world population. The challenge ahead will be to feed the increasing world population from the constant natural resource and to reduce the environmental impact.

Reference:

Brown, R. (2005): Pushing beyond the earth’s limits. The Futurist, May/June 2005