World Population
There are more
than 7 billion people on Earth now, and roughly one in eight of us doesn't have
enough to eat. The question of how many people the Earth can support is a
long-standing one that becomes more intense as the world's population—and our
use of natural resources—keeps booming.
Population
debates like this are why, in 2011, National Geographic published a series
called "7 Billion" on world population, its trends, implications, and
future. After years of examining global environmental issues such as climate
change, energy, food supply, and freshwater, we thought the time was ripe for a
deep discussion of people and how we are connected to all these other
issues—issues that are getting increased attention today, amid the new
population projections.
After all, how
many of us there are, how many children we have, how long we live, and where
and how we live affect virtually every aspect of the planet upon which we rely
to survive: the land, oceans, fisheries, forests, wildlife, grasslands, rivers
and lakes, groundwater, air quality, atmosphere, weather, and climate.
Even though
more than 800 million people worldwide don’t have enough to eat now, the mass
starvation envisioned hasn't happened. This is primarily because advances in
agriculture—including improved plant breeding and the use of chemical
fertilizers—have kept global harvests increasing fast enough to mostly keep up
with demand.
As part of this
human-dominated era, the past half century also has been referred to as a
period of "Great Acceleration" by Will Steffen at International
Geosphere-Biosphere Program. Besides a nearly tripling of human population
since the end of World War II, our presence has been marked by a dramatic
increase in human activity—the damming of rivers, soaring water use, expansion
of cropland, increased use of irrigation and fertilizers, a loss of forests,
and more motor vehicles. There also has been a sharp rise in the use of coal,
oil, and gas, and a rapid increase in the atmosphere of methane and carbon
dioxide, greenhouse gases that result from changes in land use and the burning
of such fuels.
One of our biggest impacts is agriculture. Whether we can
grow enough food sustainably for an expanding world population also presents an
urgent challenge, and this becomes only more so in light of these new
population projections. Where will food for an additional 2 to 3 billion people
come from when we are already barely keeping up with 7 billion?
As climate
change damages crop yields and extreme weather disrupts harvests, growing
enough food for our expanding population has become what the 2014 World Food
Prize Symposium calls "the greatest challenge in human history."
Population is
not just about numbers of people. Demographers typically focus on three
dimensions—fertility, mortality, and migration—when examining population
trends. Fertility examines how many children a woman bears in her lifetime,
mortality looks at how long we live, and migration focuses on where we live and
move. Each of these population qualities influences the nature of our presence
and impact across the planet.
Improved
education, especially for girls, is cited as a key driver of declining family
size. Having light at night can become a gateway to better education for
millions of young people and the realization that opportunities and choices
besides bearing many children can await.
20 Things to do
and pass it on to others to lower your impact of the environment:
1.
Use
glass straws or stainless straws instead of plastic ones. Each day more than
500,000,000 plastic straws are used in the United States. The Last Plastic
Straw initiative seeks to activate citizens through a grassroots campaign to
encourage individuals to push for change in restaurant protocol and practices
in their local communities around the world.
2.
Use cloth napkins for all meals.
3.
Use public transportation when you
can. Avoid air travel when possible, as it uses large amounts of fossil fuels
and contributes to greenhouse gases.
4.
Unplug chargers, refusing to use
energy when it’s not even working for us. Put the kids in charge for increased
success.
5.
Volunteer where we can, to inform
and inspire others.
6.
Wash laundry in cold water and hang
dry when the weather allows.
7.
Reuse cloths (and old t-shirts that
are too stained and torn for hand-me-downs) for cleaning cloths around the
house.
8.
Bring your own reusable bags to the farmers
market or grocery. Vendors love it, and so do we.
9.
When you consume meat, make sure
it’s from a reputable source or farm where animals are treated
humanely, can roam free, and are not given hormones or antibiotics.
10. Shop
for local, organic produce. We choose to support our local farmers markets for
so many reasons, but one reason is NO pesky stickers on each piece of food.
That’s a small step to reduce your impact, but one your body reaps the
benefits.
11. Choose
organic/ethical clothing as much as possible – reducing chemicals,
formaldehyde, phthalates coming into your home.
12. Avoid
single-use items. Our oceans are filled with plastic bottles and items that
were used short term. Thinking twice about buying short-term items in plastic
is one of the most impactful green choices you can make.
13. Demand for climate solution for this 2020
election from our candidates!
14. Change
to energy-efficient light bulbs
15. Get
a home or workplace energy audit to identify where you can make the most
energy-saving gains
16. Grow
your own vegetables in your backyard
17. Eat
more meat-free meals
18. Install solar panels at home or your
business place to reduce fossil fuel consumption
19. Vote
for leaders at all levels of government who take climate change seriously. They
should commit to setting science-based targets to reduce harmful carbon
emissions, implementing clear plans to reach those targets, adapting to climate
change and shifting to a clean-energy economy.
20. Start or led a local movement in climate
change.
Pass
on this message and share:
