Assessing the impact of rapid population growth and its consequences on our environment and biodiversity.
For a number of reasons, environmental management has become a major problem. The ecosystem has been thought to support not only humans but also other organisms. As environment-provided natural resources have helped humans and other animals in a variety of ways.
It creates habitat for a variety of organisms and facilitates ecological processes like replenishing atmospheric moisture by promoting the growth of vegetation. Ecosystems including wetlands, forests, and waterways are essential for waste digestion. Forests help to purify the air and act as carbon sinks. They are sources of medicine.
Wild animals such as birds, snakes, and other creatures can also live there. On the other side, wetland ecosystems provide protection services, such as the buffer zone surrounding open land and waters that controls and guards against water contamination, thus reducing pollution. The replenishing of moisture in the air also moderates the climate. Stormwater management, providing homes and refuges for animal and plant species, flood control, conserving water, nutrient availability, and/or recycling are additional functions provided by wetlands. The environment, especially these natural resources that support both humans and other living forms, has been substantially impacted by the increasing human population.
The interconnectedness of population expansion and natural resources affects both the disruption of the climate and farmers' capacity to adapt to it, particularly in developing nations with quick-changing demographics and sectors that depend heavily on natural resources. Despite the existence of studies on increasing concerns, it has focused primarily on the advantages of increasing population, giving consumers and decision makers a partial picture. This limited efforts to improve food security, mitigate climate change, and pursue sustainable development goals.
Rapid population increase nevertheless poses a danger to the sustainable use of natural resources and continues to be a primary driving force behind environmental deterioration. Through excessive exploitation, aggressive farming, and land disintegration, it lowers the quality and quantity of natural resources. The lack of agricultural land in areas with high population pressure causes dormant periods to be reduced or eliminated, soil fertility to decline, and farm income to decrease as a result of farm partitions. Additionally, in pursuit of more vacant land, rural residents or those who run small farms leave an impression on natural forests by resettling there or cultivating marginal lands, which changes the ecosystem's carbon source-sink dynamics.
In addition to worsening farm owners' food insecurity, low farm revenue from small farms makes it difficult for them to implement key climate change adaptation technology. On the other hand, water is regarded as the second-most crucial resource, right after oxygen. It is well known that all living things need it to survive. Water supplies are under a lot of stress as a result of the growing human population. The inorganic fertilizers used to raise yields and meet the demands of a growing population not only have a deleterious effect on the land but also end up in water bodies through runoff or other channels. This lowers the quality of the water. This may interact with the pH of the water, which could impair aquatic biodiversity and promote eutrophication.
Due to the increase in human population, intensive farming has also necessitated irrigation practices, some of which might result in excessive water use. Growth in the population is also correlated with increased waste production, which, due to improper management, may be thrown directly into water bodies, lowering the quality of the water.
Likewise to overpopulation, rapid population growth may be linked to higher levels of poverty. As a result, additional aquatic resources, like fish, may be overused. They can be harvested in a variety of ways, such as by using chemicals when fishing, which can have a negative influence on not just the fish species but also other aquatic life.
Coming generations will be concerned because the resources are quickly running out. As was already established, the environment affects both the survival of humans and other living things on Earth. Despite this, there hasn't been much thought given to the notion that our existence is supported by these resources. The destruction of forest resources, conversion of wetlands into settlement and agricultural lands, encroachment into and construction of structures within areas designated as wildlife refuges, indiscriminate waste disposal, direct washing in river and lake waters, and other environmental harm are mostly caused by man.
Realizing that these resources are what keep our life on earth possible is crucial. That is, rather than us owning them, they own us. Therefore, we should carefully handle, manage, and conserve them, and we should defend them. To address the problems of rapid population expansion and change the relationships between people, natural resources, climate change and adaptation, we need to act quickly.
