PEOPLE

Trends in Human Population Growth About 7.3 billion… and counting. That is the approximate size of the human population. Just how great a number is 7.3 billion? Even the number 1 billion is difficult to picture. If you started to count once each second without even stopping to sleep it would take you more then 30 years to reach just 1 billion. Although the rate of human population is slowing the actual growth does continue. Every person who is born needs food, water and space. How long will population growth continue? How much food, water, and space can the Earth provide? These are questions that some environmental scientists seek to answer.

Advances in Agriculture About 10,000 years ago, many human societies changed from hunter-gatherers to settled farmers. As people began to grow crops and raise domestic animals, they met their nutritional needs more easily. As a result, people lived longer and more children survived to adulthood. Eventually some people began trading and purchasing food from other people. Because their time was freed from growing food, they could pursue crafts and trades. This allowed the population to slowly increase Agriculture Begins

Industrial Revolution During the Industrial Revolution which began in the mid 1700’s, many societies started to shift from a rural life focused on agriculture and goods made by craftspeople to urban societies powered by fossil fuels. Sanitation – Louis Pasteur ad other scientists developed the germ theory of disease. Doctors started washing their hands between patients, which greatly reduced the number of deaths due to infectious disease especially during child birth. Medical Technology – The advances in industry made it possible to mass produce medical instruments and most importantly medicine. Changes in Agriculture – The invention of large fossil- fueled machines that make it possible to plant and harvest food in mass quantities. Pesticides were developed which reduced competition from weeds and killed insects that killed crops. Synthetic fertilizers were also invented to enable farmers to grow more food from the same amount of soil

World Population Growth Agriculture Begins Bubonic Plague Industrial Revolution

Impacts of Populations Affluent Societies – The environmental impacts on humans depend on the way people live. When people have more money they buy more food and things. Much of the materials required to make societies purchase don't come from their lands but from far off places. Although the population growth rate is usually lower in affluent societies, individuals from affluent society tend to have large ecological footprints that those from poor societies. Therefore the addition of a person in an affluent society has a greater impact on the environment than the addition of a person in a poorer society. Poor Societies – When people live in poverty, they place different stains on their environment than people in affluent societies. Many of these strains are related to population growth and survival. In some nations the growth overwhelms the government and it is unable to provide infrastructure to protect its people and the environment. People may be forced to engage in environmentally harmful activities to survive. For example people who depend on agriculture in a region of poor farmland may continue to farm heavily, even if it destroys the soil

Impacts of Technology Without the technology that has brought about modern life, it’s unlikely the human population ever would have experienced the ongoing exponential growth of the past couple hundred years. Negative Impacts – The environment has paid the price for human achievements because many technologies have involved exploitation of resources such as soil, minerals, fossil fuels, old growth forests, and the oceans Positive Impacts – In recent years less harmful technologies have begun reducing environmental impact. For example, recycling programs and advances in wastewater treatment are helping reduce waste output. Solar, wind and geothermal energy technologies are producing cheaper and cleaner renewable energy. Ensuring these technologies become equally available and implemented in developing nations is a foal many international agencies.