Paper Review: Population and Food - Essay Example

The following few pages will examine two such interesting opinions, as well as contain an analysis of where this student feels we are heading as a whole. Speidel et. al. begin by providing a solid background as to why our current population growth is so troubling. The issue actually came to attention of social scientists back in the 1960’s. At that time, the world was beginning to boom economically like at no other time in history. The more people that are born, the more people there are to have children of their own.

It is simple mathematics. Out of this, however, have come families that were ill prepared for children of their own and we now have more families around the world living in poverty than out of it. In addition, it is noted that many couples in developing countries lack adequate access to family planning services. They may desire to put off having children, or to have fewer children, but without contraceptives, numerous children are being born into this world to parents who do not want them. Couple that with the fact that food is scarce in many of these regions, and a problem that began fifty years ago is only compounded today.

The massive population growth evident in the world today has created more problems than simply a lack of food and other resources in many areas. Simply put, for example, people must live somewhere. As humans have grown in number, they have had to cut through forests and other natural wildlife regions in order to maintain their survival. At first, this did not seem like that big of a deal. Over time, however, we have grown to realize just how dependent the earth’s survival is on nature. If this massive population growth does not stop, the fear is that cities will over run rural areas, creating irreparable harm to the environment and potential destruction of the human race.

An interesting byproduct of this population growth is that economical situation in the world has dramatically improved as well. This has created a need for resources that is beyond what we really need. To fuel this economic growth, countries around the world have needlessly encroached upon the environment to feed this insatiable desire for pleasure. At this rate, consumption of resources, such as food, will grow four fold by 2075 (Speidel 2009, 3050). At this rate, our current ecosystem cannot sustain the pull on the environment.

Already experts estimate that we have caused more changes to the earth’s ecosystem in the past 50 years than at any other time during human civilization. Sure, nobody can say with certainty that the ecosystem will not simply continue to regenerate anew, but common sense would dictate that there will come a point when, to put it bluntly, the Earth simply gives up and shuts down. This article effectively points out several areas of primary concern owed to population growth. As mentioned before, forests are rapidly being cut down in favor of a more suitable human habitat.

The rainforest in the Amazon, for example, has eroded more than 20% in the past 40 years. At this rate, we will not have suitable rain forests to protect the environment, as this is one part of the earth’s ecosystem that cannot simply regenerate itself once it is eliminated. Coupled with this startling fact, nearly 3