Discussion Of Whether The Huge Growth In Human Population Is Leading Our Race To Extinction

Introduction

Growth in human population is increasing at a staggering high rate, and with this huge growth, comes potential problems. We, humans, have advanced so much in medical and agricultural fields, that our population continues to grow with ease - since medication and food is easily accessible. It may sound like us humans have a promising future. However, in the quest to accommodate everyone on Earth, comes with its problems. Factory production increases, intensive farming practices get more intense, overcrowding occurs as well as the loss of water fresh and clean water.

Clarification of Research Question

Since our increase in population has caused us to make various adjustments to the way we live, won’t these new living conditions cause us humans to die off as a race? These are a few problems that come with overpopulation. The question is whether these factors are severe enough to impact humanity to the extent to cause low life expectancy or extinction.

Aim

To determine whether or not our living conditions (Overcrowding, pollution, intensive farming practices, loss of fresh water) are decreasing our chances of survival as a race/ leading us to extinction.

Analysis, Interpretation and Discussion of Findings

It has been estimated that there are 7.6 billion people on Earth today. A report by the Population Reference Bureau (PRB, 2016) estimates that the population will grow to a staggering 9.9 Billion by the year 2050. This huge increase is 33% of our current population in only 35 years. The PRB also calculated that of the additional 2.4 billion people increase, 1.3 billion of those people will be added in Africa. According to Worldometer (2019) it was only in the 1800s when the world population reached its first billion. Thereafter it took another 130 years for the second billion, another 30 years for the third, 15 years for the forth, and 13 years for the fifth. During the 20th century alone the population has grown 4.35 billion.

What This Huge Growth in Population Means

Human overpopulation is one of the most concerning environmental issues. This huge growth in population is aggravating the forces behind habitat loss, global warming, intensive farming practices, environmental pollution. In addition, it is draining our fresh water, fossil fuels, arable land, at such a high rate that the rate of regeneration cannot keep up.

Loss of Water

According to National Geographic 2019 - 2.5% of our Earth is covered in fresh water. However, only 0.007% of it is available to feed and fuel 7.6 billion people. By the year 2050 around 1.8 billion people be suffering from water scarcity and two thirds of the population will be living in water-stressed regions. This loss of fresh water is due to overpopulation, and climate change according to United Nations. The loss of fresh water is concerning as this is our basic resource for survival, and the habitat for most fish. If freshwater availability continues to drop, freshwater fish will be threatened. Most importantly humans, and land animals (which we rely on for food) will be in danger too. If we don’t have access to clean water, hygiene levels will decrease causing sanitation issues in regions. This allows disease and bugs to develop much easier (paired with overcrowding) - If this continues health problems will be a great concern. This decreases our chances of survival as a race, and also threatens other species that we are supposed to preserve, and not allow to go extinct. This is mainly because of overpopulation - as we have to produce more farms (more livestock), support more homes with clean water for sanitation.

Air Pollution

As the population increases our demand for factories and cars increase as well. This leaves us with a major issue – Air pollution. According to the World Health Organization (2019) a study showed that air pollutants put a person at risk for developing lung cancer, as emissions from factories and cars are mostly carcinogens. Not only does it cause lung cancer it also puts a person at a high risk of developing asthma, respiratory disease, and heart disease. An article posted by Christopher Wanamaker (Master’s degree in engineering) on Soapboxie (2019) - as our population grows the demands for factories, and vehicles increase as well. These toxic chemicals that are released into the air settle into water sources and plants - This causes bioaccumulation and eventually reaches us humans in the food chain.

If this continues, how will humanity survive without us developing some disease/cancer? Researchers from Rutger University (2019) discovered that pollutants affect the unborn babies by the inhalations of air pollutants of the mother. “Pregnant women should avoid areas known for high pollution” states Phoebe Stapleton. Air pollutants affect the mother’s blood vessels, which constricts blood flow to the baby – starving it of nutrients. This results in delayed growth and development. According to an article by Paola Rosa-Auino (2018) – pregnant woman that were exposed to high pollution areas had a 17% higher chance of delivering babies of a low birth-weight (around 3 pounds) compared to mothers outside of the high polluted areas.

If air pollution continues to grow in the future, upcoming generations are already at risk as a result of the previous generation’s environment. Which will soon be theirs, but in a worse condition. As pollution continues to get worse around the world, our chances of living healthy lives are decreasing. If babies are starved of nutrients and born with low birth-weights, their chances of survival decrease. According to an article by March of Dimes (2018) pregnant women that are exposed to air pollutants have an increased chance of stillbirth (death of the baby after 20 weeks in the womb). This is an increasing problem as air pollution is continuing to get worse. Therefore, survival rates will decrease for babies.

According to an article by Earth Day Network (2019) – The second leading cause of global warming is deforestation. Scientist have said that the CO2 emitted from deforestation is more than all the cars and trucks on the roads combined. The issue with this, is that the more trees you cut down, the more CO2 is emitted - but trees use CO2, CO, and Sulfur Dioxide to stabilize our climate. In effect this factor for global warming increases twofold as trees are cut down. Deforestation is mainly caused by overpopulation – Furniture, paper, housing, freeing up of land is in a higher demand. This shows that overpopulation has a direct correlation to global warming. As global warming gets further in motion, mosquito populations increase because of their ability to thrive in warm temperatures. This will result in an increase in malaria, which is deadly to humans, thus decreasing our chances of survival/producing offspring (death rates rise) as we progress and continue on this path.

Populations of bark beetles have bred at a rapid pace because of the increase in the Earth’s temperature. These beetles have devastated millions of acres of forests in the US – According to the National Geographic magazine. This is once again leads to trees dying (not allowing them to absorb pollution, causing global warming), and so the cycle continues. In an article by The World Counts (2014) - as these air pollutants settle into plant and water sources the toxins travel up the food chain (bioaccumulation) and eventually reach us. This is dangerous for both us humans and other species on Earth. If this continues, the chances of animals, or us, getting some sort of disease is rather large.

The pollution we are creating is killing our Earth slowly. It is our job to maintain a healthy environment for all creatures including ourselves. But we have resorted to the toxic path for our convenience and survival. Earth is our permanent home for all known life and life to come, and we should do our best to look after it. However, the greed of humanity takes over even in the sight of potential extinction of species and the death of our planet. This type of behaviour is questionable.

Overcrowding

Overcrowding begins when the population exceeds the environment’s carrying capacity. Population growth will decrease living space for people in the future. The more people there are, the more densely clustered we are. This results in overcrowding, which is quite dangerous, as diseases such as HIV, dysentery, malaria (The number one killer in the world), and tuberculosis spread faster in areas that are overpopulated.

Overcrowding is usually associated with a decrease in sanitation, and quality of life, which makes a perfect breeding ground for diseases. Outbreaks of diseases are more frequent and more intense when the density of a population is very high - which decreases life expectancy significantly. This is fuelling the fire, because diseases have a greater chance of survival and mutation in densely populated areas. If this continues, we are helping diseases to become stronger and preventing a healthy lifestyle for us humans, which is reducing our chances of survival, and slowly leading us down a dark path.

Intensive Farming Practices

Intensive farming has become extremely popular since our population has started increasing at such a rapid pace. This is allowing us to keep up with food production to satisfy everyone’s needs, but it is also affecting the environment and our health. Intensive farming involves a lot of agro-chemicals such as pesticides, fertilizers, insecticides, and herbicides. These chemicals do unintended damage to insects that are beneficial to the environment, which decreases biodiversity.

According to an article by The Guardian (2019) – Intensive farming has increased rate of food production but it has killed a myriad of insects and bees from the pesticides (decreased biodiversity). It was also that stated that chemical fertilizers contribute directly to climate change because of the release of ammonia (greenhouse gases). This is facilitating global warming, which is decreasing our chances of survival. It was also stated that enough scientific evidence has been accumulated to see that the path we are on is dangerous, and is risking a runaway climate change, death of soils, extinction of species that we rely on for food, and the pollution of air and water.

Another downside is that these chemicals contaminate the food products and lead to us consuming these chemicals, which are hazardous and causes issues such as skin allergies, congenital diseases, physical deformity. Workers that spray these chemicals are directly affected as well. These chemicals are difficult to wash off even though the produce looks clean after a rinse, which makes it near impossible for a person not to get these chemicals in their system. An article by Pesticide Action Network UK (2017) states: Long term consumption of these chemicals have been linked to a greater chance of cancer development, including leukaemia, asthma, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Agro-chemicals are also endocrine disruptors. The endocrine affects are activated via low dosages of chemicals. The symptoms include: A reduction in semen quality (decreased fertility), prostate and testicular cancer, cysts on ovaries, breast cancer, pregnancy complications, and degenerative brain disorders. This is quite concerning, as people that want to eat healthily from fresh products are still getting a dose of these chemicals into their system, reducing fertility, and possibly getting cancer. If this continues, humans will struggle conceiving and producing offspring, and simply living healthy lives in general – which is concerning for our race’s future.

In an article by Gabrielle Klissinger, and Martin Herold (2012) - it was calculated that our huge increase in agriculture is around 80% of the reason for deforestation globally. Global warming increases as the trees die, and the effects of global warming (as mentioned before) is a great concern for the survival of our race. Intensive farming is mainly focussed on producing mass amounts of food that looks appealing and have an extended shelf-life, but have a lower nutritional value compared to the produce of conventional farming. This makes it difficult for a person to get in their daily nutritional intake, which

Many antibiotics are also used when it comes to livestock to keep the animals healthy. However, in such vast populations of animals, antibiotic resistance starts arising. This is contributing towards the global concern of ‘superbugs’, as antibiotics are used the most in animal farming. According to The Medical School of Harvard (2016) - These drug resistant bacteria get transferred to humans via meat and milk and are ‘evolving’ at such a rapid pace that it is out-competing our production of antibiotics. How long before this gets out of hand and we are unable to treat any bugs? Not only will we humans be in great danger, but other species as well that we once again depend on for food.

It is our responsibility to keep this planet alive and everyone on it. However, intensive farming practices such as battery farming is one of the many extremes that we must apply in order to feed our huge population. These practices cause suffering to the animals such as the chickens. They are pumped with growth hormones and put into small spaces. After a few weeks the chickens are unable to stand because their skeleton is too weak for their hormone-pumped bodies. The question is, how can we allow this suffering? But then you realise that extreme times calls for extreme measures, even though it is unethical in a sense.

Processed Foods

Because of the very busy lives that humanity is living, we always resort to some sort of ‘quick fix’ in terms of food – processed foods and takeaways. However, these foods (frozen meals, canned foods, takeaways etc.) are chemically processed, which makes them full of artificial colourants/flavours (MSG), and sugar.

In an article written by (Joseph Mercola, 2019), it was found that a 10% increase in consumption of processed foods increased a person’s risk of death by 14% (caused by chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease). Studies showed that 18.5% of American children and 40% of adults are obese as a result of sodas, processed foods and high-carb meals (The rates in 1999-2000 were 14% of children and 30.5% of adults). If these statistics climb at this rate, we are not looking into a bright future regarding human health.

A recent study that was done which was published in the BMJ (2018) found that these chemicals are linked to a greater risk of cancer and health problems – 100’000 people were tested and analysed, and found that there was a 10% increase in the chances of developing cancer with 10% more consumption of processed foods (it was found that exercise and not smoking does not counteract these chances). These foods are packed with sodium, fats, and sugars, which results in a greater chance of obesity, heart disease, and high blood pressure.

Not only are these foods unhealthy, they are designed to stimulate the ‘reward system’ in our brains because of the chemicals and artificial ingredients added. This results in over-eating, which leads to obesity. This makes it challenging for a person that lives a busy life to change their eating habits, as it is addictive and requires more effort to prepare a healthy meal. This is a global issue that is causing a big decrease in the health of humanity – The world is ‘speeding up’ and preparing a meal with carefully selected foods is not an option. We are resorting to prepacked processed meals and takeaways that have been carefully engineered to keep you coming back for more. This is a huge factor contributing towards low life expectancy, which is yet again a great concern for our future.

This is a clever business strategy that, however, comes with its ethical questioning finding what makes us tick at the expense of a lower life expectancy. As humanity is ‘poisoned’ the bank balance of these companies expands. This comes to show, if we want to keep humanity healthy, and on the go, a non-greed approach must be made as well.

Conclusion

Humanity has caused/is causing a lot of damage to our planet, and ourselves most importantly. This is due to the fact that we are reaching the Earth’s carrying capacity. The loss of fresh water is causing vast amounts of fish to go extinct. With meat production at a high, and our huge population growth - fresh water is depleting rapidly, which is essential for most life (humans most importantly). This is decreasing our chances of survival in the future as a lack of sanitation will cause a great spread of disease.

With air pollution being the biggest contributing factor of global warming (due to our demand for factories to accommodate us humans), we are essentially poisoning the Earth, and ourselves with these emissions. Overall health rates drop as the population grows, as well as increased risk of prenatal deaths. With overcrowding being a factor as well - the spread and mutations of germs will increase, thus our health in the future doesn’t look that promising.

Intensive farming and processed foods plays a big role in keeping everyone fed and satisfied. However, this is causing bugs to mutate, cancers to develop, obesity and other health problems to arise. With this on top of all of the other stated factors, just adds another layer to it (increasing chances of death). As we continue this way, we are making our bodies more and more fragile, and causing super-bugs to form. This will make it extremely difficult to live a life without contracting a disease – decreasing our chances of survival significantly, which may lead to our race going extinct in the future.

Referencing

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