Population and Environment
With an annual growth rate of over 1 percent, more than 70 million people are currently being added to the world's population each year. In the last 40 years, the world's population has doubled from 3 to 6 billion. The high proportion of young people now entering their child-bearing years worldwide guarantees that population growth will continue at a rapid pace for some time.Population growth taxes the earth's natural systems. Forests and wetlands disappear so that people can grow more food. Water becomes scarce as it is diverted to urban areas and agriculture. Greenhouse gas concentrations increase as more and more people use greater quantities of fossil fuels.
Below is a series of SSI Updates on the linkage between environmental issues and the growth of human population.
- Human Population and Forests
- Human Population and Water Supplies
- Human Population and Climate Change
- Human Population and Biodiversity
