Human Population and the Environment—Student Section

Human Population and the Environment—Teacher Information

You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the above syllabus files Desert Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma platyrhinos) Illustration by Robert C. Stebbins Santa Cruz County Winning Population Essay The Population Crisis and My Hopes for the Future Rachel Williams, seventh grade San Lorenzo Valley Junior High School Nature Academy Teachers: Melissa Stockton and Carter Milhous Human overpopulation is a major problem that we are responsible for and now must address. It involves everyone’s future, rich and poor. The population crisis signifies that for the first time in human history we have reached a global crunch. The Earth can no longer carry this many people without being permanently damaged. Examples of the damage are rainforest burning, acid rain, pollution, global warming, depletion of our natural resources and the extinction of thousands of animal species. Overpopulation happens when the population exceeds the carrying capacity of the land. Carrying capacity is the number of humans who can be supported by the environment without ruining it. Until the Agricultural Revolution the population was very stable. With the domestication of plants, the people could grow their own food, decreasing the mortality rate. With the Industrial Revolution, the population shot sky-high, and is still growing rapidly. The population has increased from two billion to six billion in the last seventy years. Fortunately, people are becoming aware of these problems and in some countries the population is now leveling off. This is called zero population growth (zpg). This happens when the birth rate is equal to the death rate. But in undeveloped countries, family size remains very large for economic reasons. Due to overpopulation the Earth’s resources are depleted and unevenly distributed. The gap between the rich and poor is growing wider all the time. Renewable resources such as trees and food are being used up too quickly to renew themselves. Human overpopulation has caused the greatest extinction of plant and animal life since the dinosaurs. Every year about 721 million acres of rainforest are destroyed. The rainforests are home to over half the animal species in the world. After the trees are cut and burned, the land is used for farming for a few years before turning into desert. The planet is beginning to lose its biodiversity because of us. We must stop It! I have many hopes for the future. One of them is for the world to achieve zpg naturally without killing and abortion. This can be done by lowering family size. Women need to have reproductive rights and equality. in poor societies women are forced to have large families for economic security even though they don’t want to. Another hope is that we would protect our precious and wonderful home by restraining, recycling and reusing. To achieve both of these goals the world must be educated correctly about the population crisis, and be aware of the environmental problems it is causing. I can achieve these goals by telling others about the problem, eating less meat especially beef), reusing and recycling paper, plastic, glass and other recyclable products. I can also participate in environmental awareness parades, pick up trash, and take shorter showers. When I grow up I can limit the number of children I have and educate more people about what is happening. Special Recognition My Hopes for the Future Alejandra Paredez, eighth grade E. A. Hall Middle School Teacher: Betsy Schwartz The definition of the word, population, is the number of people living in a country or region. In October of 1999, the world reached a total of 6 billion people. The population of people living In a place affects many things. It affects the trees because people cut them to make houses or paper. When people cut trees it can also affect animals. That is called loss of habitat which can lead to animal extinction. Overpopulation can also affect people’s health. Industries such as factories and power plants pollute our air supply that affect our well-being. I personally have experienced garbage burning in Mexico. That burning causes many problems in Mexico City, but they are trying a great example of pollution control. They are working on reducing air pollution by limiting certain vehicles movement during the week. That makes me feel hopeful that people are working on solving problems. The world’s population is above carrying capacity because of the tradition of many countries to have large families, and also because of teen pregnancy. Many people don’t believe in any kind of birth control. My hopes for the future are that couples should have only two children. I think that would help reduce the population crisis. My hopes for the future are that people should stop cutting trees in the rain forest because they destroy many homes and lives of animals that live there. An example of an animal that lives in the rain forest which is on the extinction list is the jaguar. I would like my grandchildren to see a jaguar. In this way I would like to see people helping to save the world.