How does population growth affect the environment

While there is plenty of water on the planet, it is very much a scarce resource. Only 2. One of the byproducts of population growth has been stress on freshwater supplies. According to one report, around 40 percent of the world's population endure water scarcity, and that amount has been projected to skyrocket by as global demand for water increases by 50 percent.

Also consider that population growth is most rapid in part of the world where water is in high demand already, such as Africa and Asia. Human population growth and climate change have grown hand in hand as the use of fossil fuels has exploded to support industrialized societies.

Most fossil fuel consumption comes from developed countries. Deforestation is another important component of greenhouse gas emissions. Globally, forests store more than twice the amount of carbon dioxide than is found in the atmosphere. There are issues aplenty to overcome. Clearly, initiatives to switch to clean energy sources such as solar, improve agricultural practices, better manage water resources and fully embrace the principles of the circular economy will help us mitigate the impact of population growth.

At the other end of the spectrum, policies that encourage family planning, education, gender equity and other measures to help slow population growth will help reduce pressure on the planet. Take time to understand the issues, and support policies that will make a difference. Census Bureau.

Census Bureau Estimates 7. United Nations. World Economic Forum. National Institutes of Health. Accessed Feb. World Wildlife Fund. United States Environmental Protection Agency. This is especially apparent with the increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide and trace gases that have accompanied industrialization, which have the potential for changing global climate and raising sea level.

In both rich and poor countries, local environmental problems arise from direct pollution from energy use and other industrial activities, inappropriate agricultural practices, population concentration, inadequate environmental management, and inattention to environmental goals. When current economic production has been the overriding priority and inadequate attention has been given to environmental protection, local environmental damage has led to serious negative impacts on health and major impediments to future economic growth.

Restoring the environment, even where still possible, is far more expensive and time consuming than managing it wisely in the first place; even rich countries have difficulty in affording extensive environmental remediation efforts. The relationships between human population, economic development, and the natural environment are complex.

Examination of local and regional case studies reveals the influence and interaction of many variables. For example, environmental and economic impacts vary with population composition and distribution, and with rural-urban and international migrations. Furthermore, poverty and lack of economic opportunities stimulate faster population growth and increase incentives for environmental degradation by encouraging exploitation of marginal resources.

Both developed and developing countries face a great dilemma in reorienting their productive activities in the direction of a more harmonious interaction with nature. This challenge is accentuated by the uneven stages. If all people of the world consumed fossil fuels and other natural resources at the rate now characteristic of developed countries and with current technologies , this would greatly intensify our already unsustainable demands on the biosphere.

Yet development is a legitimate expectation of less developed and transitional countries. The ways in which populations are spread across Earth has an effect on the environment.

Developing countries tend to have higher birth rates due to poverty and lower access to family planning and education, while developed countries have lower birth rates. These faster-growing populations can add pressure to local environments. Globally, in almost every country, humans are also becoming more urbanised. By , that figure was 54 per cent, with a projected rise to 66 per cent by While many enthusiasts for centralisation and urbanisation argue this allows for resources to be used more efficiently, in developing countries this mass movement of people heading towards the cities in search of employment and opportunity often outstrips the pace of development, leading to slums, poor if any environmental regulation, and higher levels of centralised pollution.

Even in developed nations, more people are moving to the cities than ever before. The pressure placed on growing cities and their resources such as water, energy and food due to continuing growth includes pollution from additional cars, heaters and other modern luxuries, which can cause a range of localised environmental problems. Humans have always moved around the world. However, government policies, conflict or environmental crises can enhance these migrations, often causing short or long-term environmental damage.

For example, since conditions in the Middle East have seen population transfer also known as unplanned migration result in several million refugees fleeing countries including Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The sudden development of often huge refugee camps can affect water supplies, cause land damage such as felling of trees for fuel or pollute environments lack of sewerage systems. The composition of a population can also affect the surrounding environment. At present, the global population has both the largest proportion of young people under 24 and the largest percentage of elderly people in history.

As young people are more likely to migrate, this leads to intensified urban environmental concerns, as listed above. Life expectancy has increased by approximately 20 years since While this is a triumph for mankind, and certainly a good thing for the individual, from the planet's point of view it is just another body that is continuing to consume resources and produce waste for around 40 per cent longer than in the past.

Ageing populations are another element to the multi-faceted implications of demographic population change, and pose challenges of their own. For example between and , Japan's proportion of people over 65 grew from 7 per cent to more than 20 per cent of its population. This has huge implications on the workforce, as well as government spending on pensions and health care. Population income is also an important consideration.

The uneven distribution of income results in pressure on the environment from both the lowest and highest income levels. They may also be forced to deplete scarce natural resources, such as forests or animal populations, to feed their families. On the other end of the spectrum, those with the highest incomes consume disproportionately large levels of resources through the cars they drive, the homes they live in and the lifestyle choices they make.

On a country-wide level, economic development and environmental damage are also linked. The least developed nations tend to have lower levels of industrial activity, resulting in lower levels of environmental damage. The most developed countries have found ways of improving technology and energy efficiency to reduce their environmental impact while retaining high levels of production.

It is the countries in between—those that are developing and experiencing intense resource consumption which may be driven by demand from developed countries —that are often the location of the most environmental damage. While poverty and environmental degradation are closely interrelated, it is the unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, primarily in developed nations, that are of even greater concern. For many, particularly in industrialised countries, the consumption of goods and resources is just a part of our lives and culture, promoted not only by advertisers but also by governments wanting to continually grow their economy.

Culturally, it is considered a normal part of life to shop, buy and consume, to continually strive to own a bigger home or a faster car, all frequently promoted as signs of success.

It may be fine to participate in consumer culture and to value material possessions, but in excess it is harming both the planet and our emotional wellbeing. The environmental impact of all this consumption is huge. The mass production of goods, many of them unnecessary for a comfortable life, is using large amounts of energy, creating excess pollution, and generating huge amounts of waste. To complicate matters, environmental impacts of high levels of consumption are not confined to the local area or even country.

The policy implications of demographic influences on the environment are complicated and can sometimes be controversial. While some view large, rapidly growing populations in developing regions as the primary culprit in environmental decline, others focus on the costly environmental effects of overconsumption among the slowly increasing populations of the developed nations. These differing emphases naturally point to radically different solutions: slow population increase in less-developed nations or change destructive consumption and production patterns in the more-developed nations.

This debate, however, presumes a one-step solution to the complex problems created by population pressures on the environment. Both population size and consumption influence environmental change and are among the many factors that need to be incorporated into realistic policy debate and prescriptions. Examples of policies that could address the environmental implications of demographic factors include policies to promote effective family planning, more effective rural development to slow migration to crowded urban centers, and incentives to encourage sustainable levels of consumption and the use of efficient, cleaner technologies.

Disciplinary boundaries between social and natural scientists have hindered the study of the interrelationships between demographics and the environment. These barriers, however, are beginning to fall. The trend toward interdisciplinary environmental research must be encouraged, and researchers should continue to improve analytic approaches and collect new data that allow examination of the links between social and natural processes. The use of recent technology e. RAND research briefs present policy-oriented summaries of individual published, peer-reviewed documents or of a body of published work.

Permission is given to duplicate this electronic document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Copies may not be duplicated for commercial purposes. The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.

Research Brief Between and , Earth's population doubled from three billion to six billion people. Specifically, her report examines the following: The relationship between demographic factors — population size, distribution, and composition — and environmental change. The mediating factors that influence this relationship: technological, institutional, policy, and cultural forces. Two specific aspects of environmental change affected by population dynamics: climate change and land-use change.

Implications for policy and further research. Environmental Implications of Specific Population Factors According to recent United Nations estimates, global population is increasing by approximately 80 million — the size of Germany — each year. Population Size No simple relationship exists between population size and environmental change. Population Distribution The ways in which populations are distributed across the globe also affect the environment.

Population Composition Composition can also have an effect on the environment because different population subgroups behave differently. Mediating Factors: Technology, Policy Contexts, and Cultural Factors Current technology, policies, and culture influence the relationship between human population dynamics and the natural environment.