The Sustainable Environment versus the Current Growth of Human Population - Essay Example

? The Sustainable Environment vs. The Current Growth of Human Population It is no secret that the world is growing exponentially in ways never before experienced since mankind has recorded history. One could point out various statistics about human population, the rate of growth today compared to a mere century ago, and the reality that some of the cities of the world now have little land left on which to develop further. This information is well documented and known, so there is no need to inundate the reader with another recitation of that reality. What is lesser understood and talked about, however, is the effect that all of this human growth and development around the world is having on the environment. Surely, there must be a limit to the amount of development and destruction of the natural resources that this planet can actually sustain before catastrophic events begin to happen. Sustainability entails the capacity for a people and an environment to endure the test of time. As there is still much we do not know about our current surroundings, there is a cause for concern as the population around us continues to mushroom. If there is no regard for the land among us, and there are no plans put into place for increased sustainability moving forward, the earth, as we know it today, could be severely altered in eras to come. With this reality in mind, it is important now to consider whether or not our environment can be sustainable in light of an increased population, and what needs to be to protect future evolutionary eras of mankind who will follow us. That is the focus of this paper. In ecological terms, sustainability refers to the unique nature that the earth’s environment has to remain diverse and productive over time (Yazdi and Shakouri 468). It is this diversity that has, to this point, allowed civilizations to flourish since the beginning of time, having access to sustainable resources that have enabled continued growth. Biologist’s wonder, however, if this ecological phenomenon that allows the biosphere to continue in its productive state can continue indefinitely in the face of continued growth and abuse. Wetlands and forests that represent the best of what a sustainable biological system entails have long dominated the earth, during the modern era. Many people believe that the wetlands continue to be healthy and productive, while forests provide much needed stability to the environment. Time will tell, of course, if these thoughts are correct, or whether we are truly destroying the sustainability of our planet. Throughout history, humans have talked about showing a respect for nature that has transcended time, yet this does not always equate into action. With continued population growth, however, this respect and admiration for the forests, wetlands, and other aspects of our sustainable environment has gradually decreased over time. Sustainability is vitally important to humans, however, in order to contribute to the long-term well being and ability to thrive in the midst of global change. Factors that impact this ability to sustain the productiveness of the earth for the long term include certain ecological, political, and cultural components. In essence, the needs of humans to grow and prosper on this earth must be balance with certain environmental values that cannot be compromised. Humans cannot fight the ecology of the world in the long-run and expect to win. The need for social equality and economic expansion must be balanced with the need to create a sustainable environment that will continue to support human expansion. It has long been known that a healthy ecosystem is necessary to not only the continued survival of living organism (humans included), but also to their ability to flourish as well (Omer 2268). In order to accomplish this feat, methods must be established in an effort to reduce any negative impact that humans have on the environment around them. In order for the earth to remain sustainable and stable, humans must allow it to continue to do so. Scientists have certainly uncovered the reality that we can, intentionally or not, adversely affect the ability of the earth to create and generate the phenomenon required to allow us to continue to enjoy its resources. One way of furthering our ability to contribute to this climate of sustainability is by promoting a process of environmental management that transcends cultures, societies, and political arrangements. What we have to realize is that a healthy ecosystem is necessary in order to provide humans with the goods and services that they need to survive. This might seem like a given, yet it is a concept that is all to often taken for granted. As the world’s population spirals nearly out of control, the effective management of these resources in necessary in order to keep the biosphere vibrant and able to produce for us. Such a process of environmental management carries many different dimensions, each of which the successful implementation of will not guarantee the future sustainability of the earth, but will certainly further it along. To begin, environmental management includes a global populace that is focused on the protection of the oceans, freshwater system of lakes and rivers, and the protection of the land and atmosphere (Mortimore & Tiffen 12). Water is necessary to the survival of living organisms, and thankfully the earth has plenty of it. Covering 71% of the earth’s surface, water is plentiful, yet unfortunately not very potable. While the oceans of the world are necessary for sustaining valuable plant life and other species, it is freshwater that radically contributes to the sustainability of most living organisms on the face of the earth. Since freshwater comprises only 2.5% of the world’s water sources, it is vitally important that it managed properly. As the population of the world increases, the strain on freshwater systems globally is becoming tremendous. Compound this with the fact that must of our freshwater is actually captured inside its own prison, in the form of the Antarctic ice sheet, and the need for such management becomes even more noticeable. Freshwater is located in most places in where humans thrive and produce. It is found in such places as glaciers, lakes, rivers, wetlands, aquifers, and indeed even the atmosphere. As long as we are able to find a way to properly manage this life giving source of water, the earth will be better able to sustain itself. The reality is, however, that this is becoming increasingly difficult in the midst of various human and environmental factors. The biodiversity of the freshwater supply is designed to be continuously replenished via the water cycle. This is designed to allow water that we consume to be replaced by rain occurring throughout the globe, yet there is only so much to go around. While the population is increasing, the amount of rainfall has remained relatively stable throughout the years (some years bring more, some years less rain). The reality is that humans not only use such water for drinking, they use it for bathing, washing, and other daily activities that could be determined wasteful under many situations. Moving forward, should the population continue to outpace the replenishing of freshwater, proper management is needed to ensure the sustainability of the water cycle (Schneider, Martinez-Alier, & Kallis 655). Naturally, the water supply on earth is not we have to worry about when consider the sustainability of the planet. Humans, and most other living organisms for that matter, require fertile land in order to survive and thrive. This same land is gradually being encroached upon in some areas by population explosions. Beijing, China, for example, used to be surrounded by fertile farmland, yet the areas surrounding the city are now developed and agriculture is a thing of the past (Yazdi & Shakouri 468). Much of the food in the city is now grown elsewhere. Were this pattern to be repeated in other regions of the world on a massive scale, the earth would likely suffer irreversible consequences. The land that is covered over, so to speak, contributes to a loss of biodiversity and habitat. This limits the amount of forests and agriculture that we have available to sustain life on earth, yet the population growth continues unabated. Obviously, these two concepts cannot continue for the long run unless proper management strategies are implemented now. Land is vital to sustaining the lives of humans and other living organisms as it has a tremendous effect on our global water supply, in addition to certain carbon and nitrogen ecosystem cycles that are critical to our survival. Sustainability in this area can be achieved by the development of such concepts as sustainable parks and gardens, in addition to green cities planted and produced on a global scale (Buckly 529). These areas would be off-limits, so to speak, from human development and further encroachment. Since humans begin their heavy process of evolution and growth, dating back to the Neolithic Revolution, an estimated 47% of the world’s forests have been, for lack of a better term, destroyed. There is still hope, however, as the forests of today still occupy about 25% of the world land not covered by ice. Nearly half of this land is located throughout the tropics, whose biodiversity has contributed the sustainability of a vast array of life (Cash 8088). There are even some areas on the globe that are seeing an increase in the forest area, indicated the reality that the earth truly is sustainable if properly managed and care for. In areas of massive population growth, however, deforestation is becoming an increasingly global concern. The fact that 47% of the world’s forests has been destroyed in this record keep era, the rate at which we are growing today would lead one to infer that rate of deforestation is likely to only increase in centuries to come. Naturally, food is vital to our existence, and land is vital to food. As the earth expands to more than 7 billion people, this is a monumental feat that must be accomplished day in and day out. The good news is that there sufficient land for use today, yet much of it is unfertile. As humans desire to live near fresh sources of food, that land is quickly being absconded for the sake of human development, without much regard for how people will continue to be sustained in the future. After years of overdevelopment, and elimination of some of the earth’s most fertile land, there is renewed effort being placed upon sustainable agriculture, organic farming, eventually leading to more sustainable business practices. If land use is properly managed moving forward, through a combination of the aforementioned policies, the earth can likely continue to sustain the current rate of human population growth (Cash 8088). The key, however, is proper management in the facing of increasing greed and lack of vision for the future. This must be tackled as well. Beyond land and water, another vital component of the earth is the atmosphere. One of the unique characteristics of the earth’s biosphere rests in the fact that our atmosphere is such that life can be sustained. The atmosphere of the earth, for example, sufficiently blocks enough of the sun harmful ultra violet rays to keep the earth at just the right temperature to sustain life. Other planets in our solar system are not so fortunate, and have either turned into pits of ice or gaseous cesspools of nothing. In order to keep earth from encountering the same fare, proper management of the atmosphere is also necessary. There are many aspects of this, but it transcends a mere discussion of global warming. The carbon cycle contributes to the sustainability of the earth in general. This process is meant to occur naturally, yet human development over the years has gradually disturbed the earth’s ability to properly manage itself. In a sense, humans must now work to reverse the damage that they have done to the atmosphere and return it to its proper earning. The saying ‘allow nature to run its course’ rings ever true here. The growth of the human race has had a dramatic impact on the atmosphere in just the last century alone. Air pollution is the primary cause of this, yet it is not alone in its culpability. The ozone layer is believe to be in the process of degradation due to extreme amounts of pollutants, such as nitrogen and sulfur oxide, organic compounds, and certain airborne particulate matter. These pollutants, if left unchecked, can have dramatic effects in the form of smog and/or acid rain (Schneider, Martinez-Alier, & Kallis 655). It is estimated that such pollutants contribute to a nearly 4% dimming factor of the earth in 30 years alone, from 1960 – 1990. This process may have resulted in a disturbance to the water cycle on earth, reducing the amount of evaporation and subsequent rainfall in many areas (Omer 2280). The common thread to all of this discussion about the importance of environmental management is that humans need to allow the earth to go throughout its natural stages in order to remain sustainable for billions of more years. If we continue to work to disturb certain natural cycles, the threat to all living organisms is quite dire and serious. It is a generally agreed upon principle that the evolution of the earth sustains life. Owing to its constant cycles of rebirth and productivity, many believe that the growth of the human population should have no bearing on this – all things being equal, of course. Questions emerge, however, if there will be a point where the resources available to us simply cannot sustain us, or that they cannot stand up to the abuse that humans often thrust upon the earth. The sad reality is that humans have not been the best stewards of the ecosystem surrounding us, so that sustainability is indeed in question today. A discussion of sustainable degrowth would be helpful here to demonstrate the importance or properly caring for the earth and its various life cycles and processes. Sustainable degrowth is a term used to refer to the “equitable downscaling of production and consumption that increases human well-being and enhances ecological conditions” (Schneider, Martinez-Alier, & Kallis 654). In essence, this is the process of reversing years of destruction at the earth’s expense, dating back to the Paleolithic Era, where fires and slash and burn techniques of growing crops rules the day. While some would contend that human population growth can likely be sustained, today’s global society must work to live with their ecological means. This entails the development of localized economies and the more equitable distribution of resources among the regions of the world. Today, greed has taken over. The poorest people of the world are also the people confined to certain geographic regions on the planet. As demographic trends tell us, these are also the areas of the world that are experiencing the highest rates of population growth, yet they lack adequate access to fertile land and freshwater systems. This fact can be remedied by the wealthy countries of the world reversing their trends of ecological mismanagement, resulting in the distribution of the earth’s resources more equally among all people. More, however, must still be done. Given the explosive population growth of recent decades, certain new technology must be utilized to minimize the disruption to the earth’s ecosystem. Carbon dioxide omissions, for example, must be targeted and reduced in order to help the ozone return to its proper and sustainable condition. Economic growth is also a potential barrier to sustainability. The wealthier a country becomes, for example, the less focused they are on maintaining an ecological footprint. Schnieder, Martinez-Alier, & Kallis (2011) eloquently refer to this as a phenomenon whereby growing economically actually does not become economical any longer. There is a limit to the growth that the earth can sustain. As human become more reliant on wealth, they rely on others to take care of them. As such, they begin to discount the reality that they must be good stewards of the land around them in order to see it bear fruit for years to come. Instead, wealthier countries today are showing the desire to rely on other countries to provide their food and sustenance, as they no longer have the land to do so themselves. The troubling fact about this is that developing countries will tend to do just that in order to get ahead, at the sacrifice of their own people, once again creating an inequitable distribution of wealth and the earth’s resources. History has shown this to be true in a way that transcends generations. If this cycle were to continue, that nations of the world will quickly find themselves unable to cope with demand, and the environment of the earth itself will likely be in an irrecoverable state of decline and decay (Cash 8089). Sustainable degrowth does not mean economic decline. In the face of an increase global population, such degrowth simply means a return to reliance upon the land that this earth provides us with. In order to accomplish this feat, society must realize the importance of their own global footprint. They must put survival over profit. This entails creating a political system that focuses on the sustainability of the environment, and being willing to balance the innate need of humans to prosper with the reality that the survival of the species is at stake as well. This is no easy feat to be sure, but the global community has shown signs in recent decades of working toward this goal. Global warming, severe poverty, and a lack of natural resources are all areas that must be dealt with moving forward. In order for the population of the future to be sustained, the earth must be able to provide for its citizenry. This will likely necessitate a political undertaking unlike anything that has been seen in the history of our planet. While humans have always over utilizied the earth in some way throughout generations, the reality is that we are doing so today at a rate that is unparalleled. The earth, as far as we know, has never sustained 7 billion people. This results in 7 billion people that must eat, bath, and be clothed every day of every year. While this may be relatively easy for the wealthy countries of the world, it is quite difficult for the more than 80 percent of the world’s population that must struggle to survive, and must depend on the earth for the continued sustainability (Serrano, Rus, & Garcia-Martinez 2375). To this end, politicians globally must begin to enact measures aimed at protecting the earth for future generations, while serving to ensure that those alive today have equal access to all of the resources and elements that they need to survive now. In the end, the continued sustainability of the world will likely come down to the ability of humans to live in peace with one another. Because civilization has long created a system of social stratification, we continue to live under the reality of the ‘have’s’ and the ‘have nots’. Those that have a great deal of wealth continue to disproportionally share in the bounty of all that the earth has to offer, while others are more often than not left with the leftovers. This reality has necessitated the need for the implementation of a global plan for sustainability, and that plan is making some headway. It is being reported, for example, that the ozone layer in the atmosphere is gradually showing signs of strengthening. Rather this is a result of reversing trends caused by humans, or if it is the natural course of nature, we do not know. What we do know, however, is that we must continue to work to return the wetlands and the forests to their natural states in order to preserve them and allow them to continue to provide the sustenance needed for the earth to thrive. This paper has demonstrated the importance of tackling this problem, and not saving it for future generations to deal with. As the global population continues to increase, the strain on the land, water, and atmosphere will continue to increase. While all indicators are that the earth can, at the moment, continue to sustain or existence, it is important that we not abuse it to the point of no return. For that to happen, action should be taken by all citizens of the world to be good steward of the earth around us. Works Cited Alier, Joan Martinez. “Social Sustainable Economic De-growth”. Development and Change 40.6 (2009): 1099-1119. 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