Impact Of Population Growth On Natural Resources – Maureen Lichtveld does not work for, consult with, own stock in, or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations outside of their academic appointment.

Will we have enough food for a growing world population? How will we care for more people in the next pandemic? What will heat do to millions with hypertension? Will countries fight water wars due to increasing droughts?

Impact Of Population Growth On Natural Resources

These risks all have three things in common: health, climate change and a growing population that the United Nations has estimated will surpass 8 billion people in November 2022 – double the population of just 48 years ago.

Berlin Institut Für Bevölkerung Und Entwicklung

In my 40-year career, working first in the Amazon rainforest and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and then in academia, I have encountered many public health threats, but none as intractable and pervasive as climate change.

Of the multitude of climate-related adverse health effects, the following four represent the greatest public health concerns for a growing population.

For example, flooding can affect water quality and the habitats where dangerous bacteria and vectors such as mosquitoes can breed and transmit infectious diseases to humans.

Dengue, a painful mosquito-borne viral disease that sickens about 100 million people a year, is becoming more common in warm, wet environments. Its R0, or basic reproductive number – a measure of how quickly it spreads – increased by about 12% from the 1950s to the average in 2012-2021, according to the 2022 Lancet Countdown report. Malaria’s season extended by 31% in highland areas of Latin America and nearly 14% in Africa’s highlands as temperatures rose over the same period.

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Patients rest in a makeshift dengue ward at a hospital during a severe outbreak in Pakistan in 2021. Arif Ali/AFP via Getty Images

Flooding can also spread waterborne organisms that cause hepatitis and diarrheal diseases, such as cholera, especially when large numbers of people are displaced by disasters and live in areas with poor water quality for drinking or washing.

Droughts can also degrade the quality of drinking water. As a result, more rodent populations enter human communities in search of food, increasing the potential to spread hantavirus.

Excessive heat can worsen existing health problems, such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. And when heat stress becomes heat stroke, it can damage the heart, brain and kidneys and become fatal.

Pdf) The Impact Of Population Growth On Managing Forest Resources In West Usamabara, Tanzania

Today, approximately 30% of the world’s population is exposed to potentially fatal heat stress each year. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that the percentage will rise to at least 48% and as high as 76% by the end of this century.

In addition to lives lost, heat exposure was projected to result in 470 billion potential work hours lost worldwide in 2021, with associated income losses of up to US$669 billion. As populations grow and heat rises, more people will rely on fossil fuel-powered air conditioning, further contributing to climate change.

The Lancet review found that high temperatures in 2021 shortened the growing season by an average of about 9.3 days for corn, or maize, and six days for wheat compared to the 1981-2020 average. Warming oceans, meanwhile, could kill shellfish and displace fisheries that coastal communities rely on. Heat waves in 2020 alone resulted in 98 million more people facing food insecurity compared to the 1981-2010 average.

A farmer in Zimbabwe switched to sorghum, a cereal crop that can thrive in dry conditions, as drought withered other crops in 2019. Jekesai Njikizana/AFP via Getty Images

Earth’s Human Population Continues To Grow.

Rising temperatures also affect freshwater supplies through evaporation and through shrinking mountain glaciers and snowpack that historically allowed water to flow through the summer months.

Water scarcity and drought have the potential to displace nearly 700 million people by 2030, according to UN estimates. Combined with population growth and growing energy needs, it can also fuel geopolitical conflicts as countries face food shortages and compete for water.

Air pollution may be exacerbated by the drivers of climate change. Warm weather and the same fossil fuel gases that heat the planet contribute to ground-level ozone, a key component of smog. It can worsen allergies, asthma and other respiratory problems, as well as cardiovascular disease.

Wildfires fueled by hot, dry landscapes add to the health risk of air pollution. Wildfire smoke is loaded with tiny particles that can travel deep into the lungs, causing heart and breathing problems.

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Smog in New Delhi, India is an ongoing problem. It got so bad in 2017 that the city temporarily closed its elementary schools. Sajjad Hussain/AFP via Getty Images

Many groups and medical experts are working to counter this cascade of negative climate consequences on human health.

The US National Academy of Medicine has taken on an ambitious grand challenge in climate change, human health and equity to advance research. At many academic institutions, including the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public Health, where I am dean, climate and health are embedded in research, teaching and service.

Addressing the health burden on low- and middle-income countries is crucial. Often the most vulnerable people in these countries face the greatest damage from climate change without having the resources to protect their health and environment. Population growth can deepen these injustices.

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Adaptation assessments can help high-risk countries prepare for the effects of climate change. Development groups also lead projects to expand the cultivation of crops that can thrive in dry conditions. The Pan American Health Organization, which focuses on the Caribbean, is an example of how countries are working to reduce communicable diseases and promote regional capacity to counter the impacts of climate change.

Countries worldwide committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in 1992. Thirty years later, global emissions are only beginning to level off, and communities around the world are increasingly suffering from extreme heat waves and devastating floods and droughts.

The UN climate change talks, which in my opinion do not focus enough on health, can help draw attention to key climate impacts that harm health. As UN Secretary-General António Guterres noted: While we celebrate our progress, “at the same time, it is a reminder of our shared responsibility to care for our planet and a moment to reflect on where we still fall short our obligations to one another.”

Samantha Totoni, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, contributed to this article.

Pdf) Population Growth And Natural Resources Pressures In The Mekong River Basin

Write an article and join a growing community of more than 171,700 academics and researchers from 4,754 institutions. Many people worry that population growth will eventually cause an environmental catastrophe. However, the problem is bigger and more complex than just counting bodies.

We humans are remarkable creatures. From our humble beginnings in small pockets of Africa, we have evolved over millennia to colonize almost every corner of our planet. We are smart, resilient and adaptable – maybe a little

In 2015, the world population is more than 7.3 billion people. That is more than seven billion three hundred million bodies that need to be fed, clothed, kept warm and ideally nurtured and educated. More than 7.3 billion individuals who, while consuming resources, also produce large amounts of waste, and our numbers continue to grow. The United Nations estimates that the world population will reach 9.2 billion by 2050.

For most of our existence, the human population has grown very slowly, held in check by disease, climate fluctuations, and other social factors. It took until 1804 for us to reach 1 billion people. Since then, continuous improvements in nutrition, medicine and technology have caused our population to increase rapidly.

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Human population has seen exponential growth over the past few hundred years. Data source: Our World in Data.

Many people worry that unchecked population growth will eventually cause an environmental catastrophe. It’s an understandable fear, and a quick look at the circumstantial evidence certainly shows that as our population has increased, the health of our environment has declined. The impact of so many people on the planet has led some scientists to coin a new term to describe our time—the Anthropocene epoch. Unlike previous geological periods, where various geological and climatic processes defined the periods, the proposed Anthropocene period is named after the dominant influence that humans and their activities have on the environment. In essence, humans are a new global geophysical force.

Our people have spread across every continent, creating vast changes to landscapes, ecosystems, atmospheres—everything. Image source: Richard Schneider / Flickr.

While population size is part of the problem, the issue is bigger and more complex than just counting bodies.

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Those populations—their distribution (density, migration patterns, and urbanization), their composition (age, gender, and income levels) and, above all, their consumption patterns—which are of equal, if not more, importance than mere numbers.

Focusing only on population numbers obscures the multifaceted relationship between our people and our environment, and makes it easier for us to lay the blame at the feet of others, such as those in developing countries, rather than looking at how our own behavior can be negative. affect the planet.

It is no surprise that as the world’s population continues to grow, the limits of essential global resources such as potable water, fertile land, forests and fisheries are becoming more apparent. You don’t have to be a math whiz

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