Climate Change Due To Population Growth
Main Idea:
Overpopulation ➸ More Consumption ➸ More Greenhouse Gasses ➸ Climate Changes
Population growth causes shortage of resources. If the world’s population continues to grow, at the rate it currently is growing at, there will be around 11 billion people on the planet by 2050. As people burn fossil fuels for energy, carbon dioxide is released. As the number of people increases, and as countries become more industrial, more energy will be required to run cars, factories, and sustain our unhealthy lifestyle. This will cause much more carbon dioxide to be released into the atmosphere.
Green House Gasses and Carbon Dioxide
The earth’s atmosphere naturally receives carbon dioxide from volcanoes and bodily processes such as breathing. The carbon dioxide is found in the ocean and on various parts of the surface of the Earth. Carbon dioxide is stored in fossil fuels, carbonate rocks or shells, animal and plant material. The carbon dioxide is absorbed into the oceans making them more acidic. The acidic water hurts plants and animals by killing off coral reefs and dissolving shelled organisms. This in turn hurts the food industry, involving fishing, and the food supply for various other marine animals. This causes a domino effect that affects every living thing. More carbon dioxide means more green house gasses which trap the sun’s infrared radiation in the atmosphere, making temperatures rise or change. The change in temperature affects the concentration of water in it’s different states, involving rain forests, tundras, glaciers, permafrost and deserts. The increase in levels of carbon dioxide, a by-product of over population and human consumption, plays a key role in the change of weather, directly affecting climate.
Climate and Weather
Climate and Weather is indirectly affected by population growth. As the population increases and more fossil fuels are burnt, more carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide keeps radiation from the sun, that enters the Earth’s atmosphere, from leaving. This causes the Earth's temperature to increase. This alters the Earth’s homeostasis causing irregular weather patterns making ice and permafrost to disappear, and causing natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes, drought and heat waves. As water falls in new places, and no longer falls in older places, deserts flood and lush rain forests die. The changes in weather adversely effect the growth of plants, which affects animals’ habitat and food supply.
Ecosystems
Population growth is a direct link to many problems that have to do with the consumption of food and deforestation. If deforestation continues it will cause a high reduction in oxygen production. The worlds oxygen supply comes from the trees and plant growth in our forests. If these forests disappear due to deforestation, we will have more carbon dioxide, as less of it would be recycled into oxygen. Deforestation can also be caused by more people wanting houses. The houses would most likely be built of wood that comes from the forest. So it will be a never ending cycle until our forests disappear, animals die, and our food runs out. Our food requirements will increase when more people populate the earth, as they will all need to eat, or die of starvation. The local farms and large company growers will not be able to handle the demand and in effect, cause people to starve.
