Society has had a detrimental effect upon the Earth through its exploiting or otherwise affecting most of its terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Whether negligently or intentionally, human activities have caused the deterioration of the natural environment and the extinction of many species. The significant movement of the population to the suburbs, coupled with economic prosperity and the technological improvement that made it possible, began to take its toll. Suburban growth overwhelmed land resources. Thesis Overpopulation has a great impact on environmental degradation causing pollution and resource degradation.
In urban areas, overpopulation causes water and air pollution People who resided at the edge of cities observed cherished farmlands and wildlands vanishing before their eyes. Many of the earlier urban émigrés observed that the open spaces they had come to enjoy had disappeared (Hollander 2004). Those who moved to the suburbs later found it even more difficult to find a house within a reasonable commuting distance from the city. Traffic jams became common, and new highways were built to improve traffic flow; but as soon as the new highways were built, that encouraged more suburban (Bengtsson and Saito 2003).
Pollutants may harm the senses of sight, taste, and smell and may also cause health hazards. The potential for climate change and resource depletion may eventually alter the fundamental framework of society. These potential effects will most likely become exacerbated by the end of the twenty-first century when the Earth is expected to have human biomass of thirty billion people. Presently, the human population is increasing exponentially at the rate of approximately 1.5 percent annually (Hollander 2004). If this growth rate were to continue, one can imagine that the sheer mass of all living humans, in a few thousand years, would be greater than the mass of the Earth.
For the human biomass to mushroom to this level, it would need to devour the Earth itself. Planet Earth is essentially a closed system concerning the matter. There is no transfer of matter between the Earth and its surroundings (Kinder, 2007). Because the number of atoms on Earth is finite, a species grows in biomass at the expense of its surrounding environment by obtaining atoms from the Earth. Consequently, the human biomass can never weigh more than the Earth; unless atoms are obtained from other planets, exponential growth cannot occur on Earth forever (Bengtsson and Saito 2003).
The new highways soon filled with traffic, along with all the noise and fumes. As these substances became widely used, it became apparent that they would generate other concerns. One problem with synthetic organic compounds is their proper disposal. Plastic wrappers and bottles entering natural environments remain for years. A number of these items are nonbiodegradable and resist decomposition by microorganisms (Kinder, 2007). There is also concern about the hazardous chemicals that some materials release into the environment (Hollander 2004). The unexpected side effects these substances pose for life are dangerous and sometimes unpredictable. There were reports of farmworkers suffering from overexposure to pesticides and wildlife dying wherever pesticides were used (Kinder, 2007).
The growth of industries and cities placed a tremendous burden on the environment by introducing pollutants such as pesticides, radioactive isotopes, and heavy metals into the air, land, and water. There are now approximately seventy thousand different chemicals in the marketplace, and new ones are being produced at an accelerating rate. In addition, the use of precious supplies of energy and materials for luxuries such as motorboats, air conditioners, and hair dryers has added more stress to the environment. These items deplete limited resources of raw materials necessary to make such products, as well as the depletion of “clean air” in the environment.
Pollutants such as waste heat, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), radiation, pesticides, carbon dioxide, and other gases are found in air, land, or water. They are capable of moving from one sphere to another. Usually, chemicals on the land are carried by rainwater to nearby waterways where they may cause pollution. The activities of one individual can create pollution that is detrimental to other individuals or the society at large (Hollander 2004).
The transboundary movements of pollutants lead to unusual and complex economic and political difficulties. Individuals in one nation may suffer economic loss and health hazards as a result of the pollution that originated in another nation, yet they may not benefit from the economic activity that caused the pollution. On the other hand, a nation or jurisdiction that acts to minimize pollution that is being transported over hundreds of miles may gain little local environmental benefit (Hollander 2004).
The inter-jurisdictional problems related to the regulation of long-range air pollution are especially apparent in the acid rain issue, which has led to several international disagreements. For example, a large amount of acid precipitation that is damaging the environment of the northeastern United States and eastern Canada is caused by industrial activity in the American Midwest (Bengtsson and Saito 2003).
Biodegradable pollutants are temporary nuisances that organisms break down into harmless compounds. If the pollutant is organic (including carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and nucleic acids), the organism obtains energy and/or material for its use in the process of breaking it down. However, biodegradable pollutants could have serious environmental consequences if large quantities are released in a small area. For example, the dumping of organic or food waste into a small pond will deplete the pond’s oxygen supply.
Left with no oxygen, the fish will die. Thus, biodegradable substances become pollutants when they overload the environment because they cannot be broken down by organisms at a rate fast enough to maintain the integrity of the environment (Kinder, 2007). Ecologists use the term “assimilative capacity” to express the ability of an aquatic ecosystem to assimilate a substance without degrading or damaging its integrity. Integrity is generally defined as the maintenance of the structure and the functional characteristics of a system. Nonbiodegradable pollutants, on the other hand, are dangerous simply because organisms have neither evolved enzymes capable of digesting them, nor have they developed a defense mechanism against them (Hollander 2004).
Fat-soluble nonbiodegradable pollutants, such as methylated mercury, chlorinated hydrocarbons, benzene, and polyaromatic hydrocarbons, have an additional and more significant property. Because they are fat-soluble, but not water-soluble, these pollutants are not excreted in the urine. Instead, they accumulate in the fat of organisms. Because organisms cannot metabolize these toxins, they retain almost 100 percent of them (Hollander 2004).
Current sustainable strategies aimed to reduce pollution and contamination in urban areas. In the USA, environmental activists emphasized images of unbridled polluters, technology out of control, and a laissez-faire attitude of a government that tolerated, even encouraged, the wholesale pollution of air, water, and land. On that day, America witnessed an unprecedented demonstration by millions of people from different socioeconomic backgrounds (Lomborg 2001).
The concern about the state of environmental quality was expressed by people–from kindergartners to university people. Teach-ins, litter collections, and environmental rallies were held in communities throughout the nation. Indeed, these acts of growing public dissatisfaction would propel environmentalism as a potent political force (Kinder, 2007). Over the next few decades, Earth Day’s significance as the focal point for a new political coalition became apparent. Today, however, though the American public remains generally supportive of environmental measures, it often disagrees on specific policies of conservation, antipollution control, and limiting development (Bengtsson and Saito 2003).
In the 1990s, in response to the political activism from citizens and environmental groups, the U.S. Congress enacted and/or amended numerous laws that touched virtually every aspect of public responsibility for the protection and management of the environment–from clean air to the disposal of solid wastes, to saving endangered species. The responsibility for continuous and systematic administration of these laws was largely delegated to public agencies created for just that purpose, such as the Environmental Protection Agency.
The new environmental laws were unlike previous ones in many respects (Lomborg 2001). First, they came in succession; second, most of them had effective means of enforcement; and third, the federal government became more involved in environmental protection. Pressure to involve the federal government in environmental quality came from the awareness that some forms of pollution were complex and required the type of research base that only the federal government could provide (Lomborg 2001).
Moreover, it became apparent to lawmakers that a coordinated system of pollution control was necessary. For most of American history, local and state governments had assumed responsibility for environmental protection. Except in the management of the vast federal lands of the trans-Mississippi West and the protection of American fishing and coastal interests, the federal government’s role in direct environmental control was limited (Lomborg 2001).
A plan to search suitability should consist of two main sections:
- air pollution, waste control, and water control,
- birth control.
Municipalities are often able to pass costs onto neighboring communities by dumping sewage into waterways or by building landfills or wastewater treatment plants at municipal borderlines. Local politicians strive to keep taxes down and win re-election by externalizing the costs of their municipality. National governments also have done their share of externalizing. Many nations have lowered pollution standards to encourage industrial development. As already noted, the transboundary issue has been politically divisive due to socioeconomic costs and benefits that have been accrued to different nations (Lomborg 2001).
Birth control methods can involve voluntary sterilization, birth control pills, diaphragms, contraceptive sponges, condoms, intrauterine devices. In a voluntary population education program, the decision to procreate is left to individual couples (McKee, 2003). The government may play a role by discouraging couples from reproducing when the nation is overpopulated and encouraging reproduction when it is underpopulated. In such a case, the population control program would be informative and advisory, but not mandatory. Such programs respect cultural and religious values and are in full agreement with the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (McKee, 2003).
The benefits of the plan are government involvement in the problem of pollution and public attention to the problem. The main challenge is a lack of financial resources and great difficulty to establish birth control for low-class citizens. Many of them are deprived of financial resources to spend on contraception pills and medical examinations (McKee, 2003).
Social, government, and global support is important because only joint action will help to reduce pollution and control population growth. The preceding notwithstanding, several positive developments have resulted from these international conferences. The first is that they brought attention to the endangered global commons. Secondly, the conferences brought together international decision-makers. Finally, the conferences galvanized the world’s emerging environmental movement.
The importance of the world’s environmental movement should not be overlooked. Most environmental agreements are not yet subject to international adjudication, and other mechanisms may be used to enforce them. Some of these agreements have been enforced using trade measures, pressures from non-governmental organizations, and debt-for-nature swaps. International commitment to protecting the global commons, an effort that has attracted the attention of both public and private decision-makers, has demonstrated the value of widespread cooperation in the affairs of government (McKee, 2003).
In sum, the population explosion, in many respects, is one of the rudimentary causes of environmental problems. Holding all other variables constant, humans will eventually affect the environment; larger populations will consume enormous quantities of resources and will subsequently generate more pollution. With zero population growth, society could concentrate on improving environmentally benign technology while raising the quality of goods and services.
On the other hand, with an expanding population, society must make use of its resources by providing new goods and services for the growing population. For instance, instead of building factories, resources could be diverted to make the present ones more efficient. Because the population crisis may increase demand for environmental laws, which can sometimes infringe on reproductive rights, population policies are generally topics that politicians are not willing to discuss in public. This is not to say that the population issue has not come up indirectly in other ways–for instance, in funding for famine relief and aid for family counseling.
References
- Bengtsson, T. Saito, O. (2003). Population and Economy: From Hunger to Modern Economic Growth. Oxford University Press.
- Hollander, J., M. (2004). The Real Environmental Crisis: Why Poverty, Not Affluence, Is the Environment’s Number One Enemy. University of California Press.
- Lomborg, B. (2001). The Skeptical Environmentalist, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Kinder, C. (2007). The Population Explosion: Causes and Consequences. Web.
- McKee, J. K. (2003). Sparing Nature: The Conflict Between Human Population Growth and Earth’s Biodiverstiy. Rutgers University Press.