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How to address the problem of scarcity of water
How to address the problem of scarcity of water
Overpopulation environment degradation and
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220,000, that is the number the world population will grow in a single day. Everyday. That is 220,000 new mouths to feed everyday. While globally this issue is already a top concern how will we continue to approach this with populations surging, at what cost will we draw a line and crack down. Overpopulation has contributed to innumerable environmental issues not only on a national level but also on a more substantial transborder level. This paper will focus specifically on the air, water, and land aspect of environmental issues affected by surging populations. We have all heard the terrifying predictions that will arise if our current overpopulated society doesn’t make the life changes that will help improves our lives, but more importantly improve the life of the earth and save all the organismic life it provides for us. Al Gore brought the issue of global warming to our attention in 2006 in the film An Inconvenient Truth that focuses a lot of attention on human-generated greenhouse gases and the obvious affects it has made on the earth. The effects of human-generated greenhouse gases make up a large amount of environmental damage touching on every aspect of water, land, and air. Some of our major contributions are: “3/4 carbon dioxide from deforestation; ‘deforestation is created by the demand for forest products tracks closely with rising per capita consumption in recent decades. Global use of paper and paperboard per person has doubled (or nearly tripled) since 1961’, 14% of methane comes from agriculture being livestock and feed, 8% nitrous oxide which are nitrogen fertilized soil and livestock waste, and lastly 1% fluorinated gases which come from industrial processes” (Miller pg.4). We generate these kinds of percentages b... ... middle of paper ... ...es will have to reduce water use in agriculture in order to satisfy residential and industrial water needs. In both China and India, the two countries that together dominate world irrigated agriculture, substantial cutbacks in irrigation water supplies lie ahead” (Brown pg.1). China and India both being tremendously overpopulated countries already thriving with areas facing extreme poverty could potententially predict more tradgedy. “Overpopulation will continue to lead to famine and war. When resources become scarce due to overpopulation people will feel the need to fight for them” (Miller pg.7). Water scarcity is an issue that is fastly approaching in the near future. Natural resources are being depleated faster than the can be replenished. Countries all around the world will feel the effect of overpopulation and the destruction it has on our natural resources.
A perfect example of these problems occurring due to overpopulation is China and India. According to the U.S Census Bureau the population of China and India is estimated at 2.5 billion people. That's about 36 percent of the world’s population in two countries. In China alone, over 40,000 children die each day from malnutrition and its related diseases. Diseases spread rapidly due to the tight spaces and unsanitary living conditions caused by overpopulation. According to CNN, there where huge cholera outbreaks, which killed thousands of people in India because its infrastructure was not prepared for the excess waste due to its growing population. In a study done on human rights by the United Nations, there were an about 78 million homeless people in India and 6.8 million homeless people in China in 2005. With these people receiving little to no education, their only mean of an income is through crime or
Currently, pollutants are destroying the environment and harming the health of U.S. citizens. Global warming threatens to change the lifestyle of many people around the world. Industries across the globe and goods that use or contain harmful contaminants have been the largest contributors to climate change. In recent years, there has been “artificially heightened levels of greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere” and a dramatic increase in other pollutants, “resulting in an unnatural upward trend in global warming” (Global). The level of pollutants currently in the air is not considered to be linked to the earth’s natural cycle. In fact, for the past century, “human activities…have increased the atmospheric concentration of CO2 to levels far higher than any measured for at least 800,000 years” and the concentration of CO2 is becoming a devastating and possibly irreversible problem with each day (Global). Although some...
Majority of Indian’s livelihoods are dependent upon land and water based occupational functions such as agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry and fisheries. India’s total land is about 329 million hectares, out of which 175 million hectares of land is non-productive hence non-profitable and therefore it requires special treatment for the same reason. In India, water availability situation is murky because of spatial and temporal variability. Both these factors are forecaste...
In today’s society that we live in, there are countless of environmental problems that we face, such as global warming, fishing, pollution, and many other topics of that matter. These issues have affected our environment for the worse and have caused problems physically and economically. Yet, out of all the issues that effects our world on a daily basis, it is shown that overpopulation is one if not, is our biggest issue in our environment that is only getting worse due time, especially due to the rapid growth of the human population and the limited resources that are left on earth that we absolutely need to tend to our growing population. Even Dr. Charles A. Hall, who is a systems ecologist, states that, “Overpopulation is the only problem, If we had 100 million people on Earth or better yet 10 million, no others would be a problem.” Which helps prove that overpopulation is a major issue that we must act upon if we want to save our world.
The small Cornish town of Camelford, in the South Western part of England finds itself being commonly referred to as the centre of Britain most serious water pollution incident due to a water contamination event, which took place on 6th July 1988. This report aims to apply the framework of Environmental Health to analyse the environmental health issues and the need for an interdisciplinary approach. Furthermore, it will also explain the principles of environmental health and sustainable development associated with this incident.
According to the internet human behavior has a very big affect on the environment. Environmental settings such as air pollution, oceans, energy, or noise are all sources that can negatively impact the environmental quality and conditions. Our daily routines have a huge impact on the environment and we do not realize it. New laws that are passing and educating people will help a lot. People are being educated on how to use less water, use our cars less, how to use less energy, and even taking reusable bags when going grocery shopping because plastic bags are very bad for the environment. There are simple solutions that can help in getting started with these efforts. Every little step and effort we make in our daily routines count.
There are several problems that affect the world today: war, crime, pollution, and several others. Overpopulation is a serious dilemma that is growing every year, every minute, and every second. It is the root of most, if not all, of the world’s problems1. It is the greatest global crisis facing humanity in the twenty-first century. Overpopulation is the major global problem because of several reasons. Most of the problems we have today, such as ocean depletion, food shortages, water shortages, air pollution, water pollution, and global warming are the effects of overpopulation2. The more people there are, the more resources consumed and the more waste created. A child born today in the United States for instance will produce fifty-two tons of garbage and consume 11 million gallons of water by the age of seventy-five3. Freshwater, drinkable water, is the most critical natural resource to humans. As time goes by, the world’s population expands more rapidly, but there is no more freshwater on the Earth than there was two thousand years ago, when the population was three percent of its current size4. Overpopulation has also increased industrial development, which contributes to massive urbanization and rising of living standards5. The increase in industry shrinks the amount of freshwater available because they are constantly being polluted. The rising in living standards causes people to consume more which creates more waste and raises life ex...
Ashlee Doyon Second Response Paper (Redo) Environmental Identity What is environmental identity? "Environmental identity, is how one views oneself in relation to the natural world. Environmental identity is part of the way in which one forms his/her self-concept and a sense of connection to some part of the nonhuman natural environment, based on personal history, emotional attachment, and/or similarity.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned that “Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes in all components of the climate system, increasing the likelihood of severe, pervasive, and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems” (8). The only way to limit the effects of climate change is to significantly reduce human emissions of greenhouse
“If we do not voluntarily bring population growth under control in the next one or two decades, the nature will do it for us in the most brutal way, whether we like it or not.” - Henry W. Kendall. This quote is just a small factor of what overpopulation around the world is doing. Each and every single day more and more people are born into this world, and the population increases rapidly every second. For example, the population right now in the United States is approximately 325 million people. The population in India today is about 1.25 billion people. The country with the largest population in the world right now is currently India, with 1.35 billion people, and China is not that far behind. With overpopulation in the world, there are less natural resources around the world, because all of the farmland is being taken up by new housing, buildings, and factories. Another problem it causes is air pollution. With all the factories being built, so many
Jacques-Yves Cousteau once said, “Overconsumption and overpopulation underlie every environmental problem we face today” (“Population,” Internet). With the current statistics, Jacques could not be more accurate. Every second, 4.2 people are born and 1.8 people die, which would be a net gain of 2.4 people per second (“Population,” Internet). At this steady rate, the environmental health is spiraling downwards, and it is safe to assume humans are responsible for this. As the population increases, harmful effects on the land, water, and air also do.
In 1927, for the first time in history, the world’s population reached two billion people. In 2011, less than one hundred years later, it passed seven billion (Worldometers). Some may think that this is a positive increase, creating economic growth and significant innovations in fields such as agriculture, industry and medicine. However, the amount of difficulties our species will encounter over the next century because of this population increase, will greatly outweigh those few optimistic beliefs. For example, twelve to fifteen million hectares of forest are lost every year, the equivalent of thirty six football fields per minute (World Wildlife Fund). In 2011, there were an estimated nine and a half billion metric tonnes of carbon emissions put into our atmosphere (CO₂ Now). The list could go on and on, but ultimately, these are all just contributors to what might be humanity’s most challenging problem yet: climate change.
The problem of water scarcity has increasingly spread throughout the world as of yet, The UN reports that within the next half- century up to 7 billion people in 60 countries which is more than the whole present population will face water scarcity (Sawin “Water Scarcity could Overwhelm the Next Generation”). As well the demand for freshwater has tripled over the past 50 years, and is continuing to rise as a result of population growth and economic development. 70% of this demand derives from agriculture which shows the influence of water on food supply globally as well not just drinking water (Sawin “Water Scarcity could overwhelm the Next Generation”). But increasing water use is not just a matter of the greater number of people needing it to drink and eat; it also comes from pollution and misuse of water supplies, by either dumping or runoff of bacteria or chemicals into water. This also “causes other pollutions as well such as soil and air pollution, accelerating wetland damage and human caused global warming” (Smith and Thomassey 25). According to UN report, recent estimates suggest that climate change will account for about 20 percent of the increase in global water scarcity in coming decades.
Global heating and cooling has occurred on a cycle for millennia, however in the past thirty years the increased use of energy and fuels by humans has drastically changed this natural occurrence (Juerg, 2007). The largest cause of this warming is the release of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide levels are twenty-five percent higher than they were in 1957 (UCS, 2013). This seemingly insignificant change has caused a myriad of negative effects. The endangerment of species, rising sea levels, and increased natural disasters are just a few examples of change brought about by global warming (Juerg, 2007).
There are lots of environmental issues going on globally. The earth faces problems such as pollution, global warming, waste disposal, and loss of biodiversity. These are just a small amount of issues out of the so many. These environmental problems pose an abundant amount of risk to the health of humans and animals. There needs to be a solution to all these problems and that is by informing others, so that way everyone can make the environment a better place.