Did you know that the largest single threat to the ecology and biodiversity of the planet in the decades to come will be global climate disruption due to the buildup of human-generated greenhouse gases in the atmosphere according to the *Center for Biological Diversity?? People around the world are beginning to address the problem by reducing their carbon footprint through less consumption and better technology. But unsustainable human population growth can overwhelm those efforts, leading us to conclude that we not only need smaller footprints, but fewer feet.
Climate change isn't the only global issue either, currently we're in the midst of the Earth's sixth mass extinction crisis. Harvard Biologist E.O. Wilson estimates that 30,000 species per year [or three species per hour] are being driven to extinction. Compaere this to the natural background rate of one extinction per million species per year, and you can see why scientists refer to it as a crisis unparalleled in human history. The current mass extinction differs from all others in being driven by a single species rather than a planetary or galactic physical process. Read more of the study here
From a study released by the Population Institue in July 2010 - Water is a finite natural resource and cannot be created. Instead, the hydrologic cycle recycles water through the atmosphere. The fact that our supply is finite has dire implications on our world population of over 7 billion people and growing. The global water consumption rate doubles every twenty years. Developing countries, already experiencing water-stress, often have the highest population growth rates - bringing more people into a region that already cannot support them. Read more about this study here
Another major global issues that overpopulation contributes too is War. From an article written by Kenneth R. Weiss in July 2012, he writes "In developing countries, runaway population growth has created vast ranks of restless young men with few prospects and little to lose. Their frustrated ambitions can be an explosive force, as shown by the youth-driven uprisings that toppled autocratic regimes in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia in 2011."
Runaway population growth often fuels youth-driven uprisings. In fast-growing countries, many young men are unable to find employment or pay dowries. Frustrated ambitions can be an explosive force - and a reason for some extremism. In developing countries, runaway population growth has created vast ranks of restless young men with few prospects and little to lose.
About 80% of the worlds civil conflicts since the 1970's have occured in countries with young, fast-growing populations according to an analysis by the nonprofit Population Action International.
The bipartisan commission that investigated the suicide hijackings of September 11, 2001 that were carried out by 19 young Arab men, said one factor in the rise of extremism in the Muslim wolrd was "a large, steadily increasing population of young men without any reasonable expectaction of suitable or steady employment - a sure prescription for social turbulence. " To read the complete article click here