Impact of population growth on society

Impact of population growth on society

Introduction

Human population growth affects all people around the world. The effects are majorly on the environment and economy.  Developing countries, for example, India, it’s experiencing more pressure since it’s trying to compete economically, but its industrial advancements are damaging daily. The rapid rise in human population in the country is placing a significant strain on the environment and causing depletion of natural resources. The imposition that the growth is putting on the global climate is a future threat of life. The most significant environmental impact of population growth is the issue of global warming. According to scientists, global warming will lead to extreme weather fettle, and the environment is likely to suffer from the growth of the worldwide population. The production of waste, depletion of resources and biodiversity are some of the severe problems that come with population growth.

How greenhouse gases contribute to global warming

Any vapour in the atmosphere that is capable of absorbing electromagnetic radiation, trapping and holding it in the atmosphere is a greenhouse gas. Examples of greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and water vapour (Akitt, 2018). Greenhouse gases cause heat increase in the atmosphere and greenhouse effect and hence global warming.

The extent to which any greenhouse gas will contribute to global warming depends on its abundance in the atmosphere, how long it stays there and its global warming potentials. These gases cause solar radiation to heat the earth directly because of the depletion of the ozone layer, and this effect is what is referred to as the greenhouse effect which results in global warming. If these gases continue to be emitted on the atmosphere, the temperatures will increase, and the weather pattern will change to worse. Global warming caused by these gases will have intense effects on earth ecosystems and biodiversity.

Challenges caused by these emissions

Emission of greenhouse gases causes climate change, and climate change is a global threat to economic growth. Developing countries can barely sustain themselves without depending on fossil fuels. For a developing country to build a functioning financial system and fight poverty, fossil fuels are the only reliable and affordable energy sources they can turn to. And unless some changes happen, developing countries cannot combat climate change effects and be able to provide for their citizens( Williams,2006). Therefore, the only way that the developing countries’ economies can grow is through them accelerating global warming because there is no way they can afford alternative and safe sources of energy.

In India people rely on the monsoon cycle to water their crops and be able to preserve agricultural sector jobs. Due to the Indian Ocean warming, the sequence of monsoon has changed and has become unreliable, and this has resulted in droughts and dying of the crops. Scientists from all over the globe have predicted that developing countries such as India are going to be significantly affected by the rising temperature and unpredictable rainfall situations than the developed countries. Developing countries due to their limited financial resources and weak infrastructure they will struggle to adapt and maintain their economic growth during this phase that the climate is changing.

However, global warming changes play a role of threat multiplier.  They increase the possibility of other existing threats to intensify. Carbon dioxide emission in India has led to warmer temperatures that have caused drought and increased poverty. And when hunger and poverty levels are high, political tensions can be magnified causing conflicts in a country and even nuclear war. For instance, both India and Pakistan pose nuclear weapon if drought expands and they are both affected economically, violence can erupt between them trying to fight for surviving through the available minimal shared resources.

Solutions to the growth of the human population

Women empowerment are one way that can be undertaken to reduce the human population efficiently. If the girl child is educated, she will have better things like a job to look after other than being in the house at every hour looking after babies (Conway, 2018). Being busy will lead to women avoiding early and unplanned pregnancies and make them prefer to have fewer kids to have the time to chase their dreams. The empowerment of women will not only result in population growth control but will also lead to increased economic growth.

Another way of tackling population growth is through improving health care services.  Genetically, human beings are programmed to have a high fertility rate to protect their species from extinction. But if the low mortality rate is achieved, when the need for citizens to have many kids is eliminated and in the process population growth of humans is reduced.

Promoting family planning can make a significant impact on population control. Most of the people especially in developed countries have no idea how to control their childbearing rates and even birth intervals. If each government globally advocate for family planning programs to create awareness to their citizens about the use of contraceptives to reduce birth rates lots of normal births would be avoided and generally the population would decrease.

It is making the learning of birth control to be entertaining based on the age group that is intended to teach. The approached used to teach about birth control should suit the people that are expected to be trained to attract a large number of them and make a significant impact after the educating process. For example, if young girls between 18-243 are to be taught media soap opera stories could be used for references and if  women above 27 years of age are the one to be taught cinemas of culturally captured stories will best suit them and make them love the process and end up coming out of with a changed mind.

Conclusion

In conclusion, developed countries can help developing countries in the crisis of balancing their economic growth with available natural resources. They could take up investment opportunities in these countries and assist them in reaching a zero carbon emission through alternative energy sources, and in the process, they benefit from enhancing their economic growth. If the economy is under control, then the activities that are carried to economy purpose but cause greenhouse gas emission is going to be reduced and are the poverty and global warming. Developing countries should develop policies that are to efficiently help in reduction of the population to ensure that the number of people in a country doesn’t extend the one that can be sustained by the environment and the available natural resources.

Sources

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