Human Population Issue

The central problem of environmental science, the one that links all others together, is the rapidly increasing human population.

Countries ranking in the top 40 both in terms of total population (more than 29 million people) and population density (more than 310 people per square kilometer):
Country	Population	Density (Pop. per km²)	Notes
India	1,160,139,960	352.9	Second largest country
Bangladesh	158,570,535	1142	Largest fast growing country
Japan	127,170,110	336.5	Declining in population
Philippines	93,843,460	312.8	Fast growing country
South Korea	49,354,980	493.4	Steady in population

The current annual population increase of about 80 million will remain constant until 2015.

The ten countries which will contribute most to world population growth over the next 30 years are India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Indonesia, United States of America, Bangladesh, Zaire, and Iran - in that order!

Environmental Impacts of population can be demonstrated by the following three-factor model equation:

                                                      EI  =  P × A × T

where,  EI  is the environmental impact of a population of a given area,

            P  is the number of population of a given area,

            A  is the affluence per person, which is a measure of the consumption or amount

                 of resources used per person,

            T  is the environmental effects (resources needed and waste produced) of the

                 technologies to obtain and consume the resources.

This model shows the mathematical relationship between environmental impacts and the forces that drive them. To determine the environmental impact of carbon dioxide emissions from motor vehicles, for example, multiply the population times the number of cars per person (affluence/consumption per person) times the average annual carbon dioxide emissions (technological impact). This model demonstrates that although increasing motor vehicle efficiency and developing cleaner technologies will reduce pollution and environmental degradation, a larger reduction will result if population and per-capita consumption are also controlled.  

Technology 1 American = 35 Indian = 140 Bangladeshi. Almost all usable land areas for agriculture used. 13% increase is possible, but extremely costly. Agricultural production is not increasing much since 1984.

Use of technology has altered much of the nature in a number of ways and caused significant damage to the environment: increased air pollution, water pollution, waste production, soil depletion and degradation, groundwater depletion, habitat destruction and degradation, biodiversity depletion.