Population Growth, Industrialization, and the Environment Essay

Population Growth, Industrialization, and the Environment Human universe of discourse result was relatively slow for most of forgiving history. Within the past calciferol years, however, the advances made in the industrial, transportation, economic, medical, and agricultural revolutions have helped foster an exponential, J-shaped rise in human population (Southwick, Figure 15.1, p. 160). The statistics associated with this type of growth are particularly striking Human beings took more than 3 million years to stimulate a population of 1 billion people...The second billion came in only 130 years, the third billion in 30 years, the after part billion in 15 years, the fifth billion in 12 years... (Southwick, p. 159). As human population has grown, there has been simultaneous growth inside the industrial sector. Both of these increases have greatly contributed to environmental problems, such as native resource depletion, ecosystem destruction, and global climate change. Also link ed with the change magnitude human population are many social problems, such as poverty and disease. These issues need to be addressed by policy makers in the near future in order to ensure the survival and sustainability of human life. One of the major effects of the huge population increase has been the depletion of natural resources and the destruction of ecosystems. In the 1960s, theorist Paul Ehrlich predicted that, given the skyrocketing figures of human population, the marrow of food produced would not grow at a fast overflowing rate for human survival (Professor Carr Everbach, personal communication). He predicted mass starvation and death by the year 2000 as the result of uncontrolled population growth. Clearly, this did not occur. Ehrlich did not foresee the advancements ma... ...hods of sustaining the burgeoning human population before these problems shoot the threshold of catastrophe.ReferencesHansen, J., Ruedy, R., Sato, M., & Lo, K. (2002). Global Warming Continue s. Science, 295, 275.Kerr, R. A. (2002). A Brighter Outlook for Good Ozone. Science, 297, 1623-5.NPR communicate Broadcast, March 17, 2002. http//discover.npr.org/features/feature.jhtml?wfId=1140067Poliakoff, M., Fitzpatrick, J. M., Farren, T. R., & Anastas, P. T. (2002). Green Chemistry Science and Politics of Change. Science, 297, 807-810.Quay, P. (2002). Ups and Downs of CO2 Uptake. Science, 298, 2344.Southwick, C. H. (1996). Chapter 15 Human Populations. Global Ecology in Human Perspective. Oxford University Press, 159-182. Wattenberg, B. J. (March 8, 2003). It Will Be a Smaller World After All. New York Times tower/Op-Ed Section.