7.8 - Human Population Growth

Human population growth

• The root cause behind much of the human impact on the environment is that there are now so many people, and that each person uses more than people used to.
• Over the past thousand years the human population has grown rapidly - from a few hundred million to well over seven billion - and it continues to grow.
• The main reason for this growth is that modern medicine and farming have greatly reduced the numbers dying from disease and hunger.

Rising standards of living

• Standards of living have risen, so people expect more consumer goods - new phones, clothes, and cars.
• Producing all of these uses up raw materials and energy.
• So both the number of people and the demand of each person have increased.

The impact on the environment

The growing demand for resources and rising production of waste is the underlying driver of the pollution, habitat loss, and falling biodiversity caused by humans. This is because:

• Humans take more resources from the environment, often faster than natural processes can replace them, so some supplies risk running out.
• Humans produce more and more waste.