Human Population and Environment

The human population issue is the crucial environmental issue, because most current environmental damages result from the very high number of people and our great power to change the environment. The demands of increasing population coupled with the desire of most people for a higher material standard of living are resulting in worldwide pollution on a massive scale.

Over population and waste are the two biggest problems facing the present generation. Other issues tend to stem directly or indirectly from these two problems. Ultimately, we cannot solve our environmental problems unless we can learn to limit the total number of people on Earth to the number that the environment can sustain.

As our numbers increase during the 21^st century, environmental degradation, hunger, persistent poverty, economic stagnation, urban deterioration, and health issues will continue to challenge us.

Human Population Growth, Case Study (Bangladesh)

Demographics of Bangladesh
Population:	158,570,535 (July 2011 est.)
Growth rate:	1.566% (2011 est.)
Birth rate:	24.68 births/1,000 population (2009 est.)
Death rate:	8 deaths/1,000 population (2009 est.)
Life expectancy:	60.25 years
–male:	57.57 years
–female:	63.03 years (2009 est.)
Fertility rate:	2.6 children born/woman (2011 est.)
Infant mortality rate:	59.02 deaths/1,000 live births
Age structure
0-14 years:	34.6% (male 24,957,997/female 23,533,894)
15-64 years:	61.4% (male 47,862,774/female 45,917,674)
65-over:	4% (male 2,731,578/female 2,361,435) (2006 est.)

There are about 160 million people in Bangladesh, where the annual population growth rate is 1.48%. This means that the annual increase in the population of the country is over 2 million. Bangladesh is one of the poorest nations in the world, and this poverty affects human survival. The average number of calories of food available per person is only 85% of that required for good health. Less than half the population has access to safe drinking water, and less than a fifth has access to adequate modern sanitation. Average life expectancy is about 60 years. With inadequate resources for each individual and a rapid growth rate, Bangladesh struggles to maintain even its existing poor standard of living.

The low-lying coastal areas that make up most of this nation are fundamentally uninhabitable at high population densities for extended periods and are only inhabited now because of the huge numbers of people living in the country.    

Already the need for food for the increasing numbers of people has led to overuse of the land for grazing and crop production. Almost all the usable agricultural land is already being used. Area of cultivable land in Bangladesh is decreasing at a very fast rate (more than 80,000 ha/yr).

If the present trend of only population growth continues, then after 77 years there will be no agricultural land in the country.

For Bangladesh it is difficult to talk about solving major environmental problems, conserving biological diversity, or optimizing production of fisheries and vegetation when people barely have sufficient resources to survive and the growth of the human population erases any advances.