Population Growth

Facts about Population Growth

Populations grow when the number of births is greater than the number of deaths.

Population growth isn’t caused entirely by more people having more children, but also by the longer lifespans of individuals seen in many developed and developing nations.

The UN estimates that the number of people who will reach 100 years of age will increase 100 times over, from 181,000 people in 200 to over 20 million people in the year 2100

Overall, the World’s Population is still on the rise. (i.e. The World at 1.2%, Canada at 1.2%, USA at 0.7%, Australia at 1.7%)

Europe is breaking new ground as the first region in recorded history to see a population decline over the long-term future.

(i.e. Between1990 -2010 Russia had a negative population growth of -1% Today it is only +0.1%)

Italy is currently at -0.13%, Latvia is at -1.1%

Not a European country, but Japan is at -0.25%

Facts about Population Growth (con’t)

The world’s population eats approx. 11.5 million pounds of food in just one minute. When you break it down you realize that while we may be chowing down on 11.5 million pounds in a minute, over half of that ends up wasted.

Distributing that food from areas that have abundance to areas that don’t is a problem many people and organizations continue to try and find solutions to.

The 7.6 billion people on Earth earn approximately $70 trillion dollars per year, putting the average income of each individual at about $10,000.

It is estimated that Earth will be able to sustain human life for approximately another billion years or so, but factors like war, climate change and food shortages could wipe us out long before that if we aren’t careful to keep our planet healthy.

Clip: 7 Billion – National Geographic

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Population Distribution

One of the tricky parts to population is the unequal distribution of where we all reside:

2/3 of population live within 500 km of the ocean

35% of the land is not suitable for habitat

The world’s population density is approximately 47 people per km2 on average, using only the landmass of the Earth (& not the oceans).

Doesn’t include places like Antarctica, or the most inhospitable places in the world like deserts, high mountains, and the greatest flood-prone areas.

Areas of extreme population density exist because humans crowd around water sources like rivers and coastlines, creating an unequal distribution around the globe.

The country with the highest population density is Monaco, where about16,205 people cram into each square km, and the lowest is estimated to be Greenland with a lonely 0.026 people per km2.

Limits to Population Growth Factors that limit Population Growth:

Food

Water

Clean Air

Disease

Shelter? Density? Competition?

Questions to ponder:

Is there a limit to how many people can live on this planet?

Is there a point where we have ‘maxed’ out the earth’s ability to produce enough for us to live?

How many mouths can be fed adequately before we overstrain the resources?

Have we already surpassed this point? (Africa)

Carrying Capacity for Humans:

Refers to the number of people who can be supported in a given area within natural resource limits, and without degrading the natural social, cultural and economic environment for present and future generations.

The carrying capacity for any given area is not fixed.

It can be altered by improved technology, but mostly it is changed for the worse by pressures which accompany a population increase.

As the environment is degraded, carrying capacity actually shrinks, leaving the environment no longer able to support even the number of people who could formerly have lived in the area on a sustainable basis.

No population can live beyond the environment's carrying capacity for very long.

Thomas Malthus was an English economist best known for his hugely influential theories on population growth.

Malthus (1798) predicted that England:

Would run out of resources (i.e. Food)

The population would outstrip food production

Population of Britain would peak at 14 million due to famine & disease (today it’s 53 million)

In developed countries this never occurred – Malthus was wrong.

He didn’t predict the widespread improvements and innovations through:

The Industrial Revolution

Agricultural Revolution

The advancements in medicine.

These three factors allowed the populations to continue growing.

Neo-Malthusians Today there are many people who, similar to Malthus, believe we’ve reached (or are reaching) our global carrying capacity

The ‘Malthusians’ generally agree that

the world will:

run out of enough arable land (farm land)

see a rise of conflicts & wars over water & resources control

fish stocks will deplete

see massive increases in diseases & epidemics, such as HIV/AIDS, causing widespread deaths

Many believe that we’ve reached our global carrying capacity, and no Industrial or Agricultural Revolution will come along to save us this time….

Documentary: BBC – How Many People Can Live On Planet Earth – 50 mins

https://vimeo.com/93670368https://vimeo.com/93670368https://vimeo.com/93670368https://vimeo.com/93670368https://vimeo.com/93670368https://vimeo.com/93670368