Rapid Human Population Growth on Biodiversity

Human activities alter the environment in a variety of ways. Agriculture, fishing, exploration, and mining, urbanisation, manufacturing, transportation and communication, and warfare are only a few of the primary human activities. With the ongoing rise in human population, these activities have intensified, wreaking havoc on the planet’s biodiversity, including human biodiversity. Multiple efforts are being taken locally, regionally, and worldwide to control the fast expanding human population in order to save the planet’s biodiversity and ecosystem.

The increase or decrease in the number of individuals of a species over time is referred to as population growth. The world population is thought to have reached one billion for the first time in 1804, two billion in 1927, three billion in 1960, four billion in 1974, five billion in 1987, six billion in 1999, and seven billion in late 2011 and early 2012. According to the United Nations, the world’s population will be approximately eight billion by 2030, and around nine billion by 2050. According to the United Nations, the human population will increase at an annual pace of 0.77 percent from 6.1 billion in 2000 to 8.9 billion in 2050. Human population growth patterns from 1950 to 2050 are depicted in the graph below.

All of the things that individuals perform are referred to as human activities. These are a result of people’s intrinsic (e.g. genetic and personality disposition) and extrinsic (e.g. culture, faith, and norms) variables, and they have an anthropogenic impact on both biotic and abiotic settings. We seek to investigate the numerous human activities that have direct and indirect impacts on the biodiversity of our world. Agriculture, fishing, exploration and mining, urbanisation, manufacturing, transportation and communication, and warfare are only a few of the human activities that get more intense as the population grows. Let’s take a look at some of these activities and how they affect biodiversity.

Agriculture

Agriculture produces food through natural processes and living organisms, yet also frequently alters the environment. While farms can be managed to minimise their impact on the environment, modern agriculture’s concentration on productivity means that several farms are causing disruption to wild animals close and far. When industrialised agriculture alters or pollutes the environment too much, fragile species might lose their habitats and possibly become extinct, destroying biodiversity. Agriculture takes up an area, whether it’s cultivating fruits and vegetables, cereals, or animals. The availability of prime farmland – land with good water and soil access — is restricted. These same places frequently support diverse wild ecosystems such as prairies and forests, and transforming them to farmland loses much of their variety. Unfortunately, agriculture’s ever-expanding footprint threatens to destroy these fragile and crucial wild habitats. Extensification is the process of bringing additional wild land into cultivation. The repercussions of industrial agriculture’s rising footprint are not confined to habitat destruction: its reliance on heavy chemicals to create enormous stands of single crops has major implications for plant, animal, and microbe biodiversity.

Industrial agriculture also has a negative impact on soil biodiversity. When farmers plough up soil, they disrupt the habitats of insects and other invertebrates, disrupting their potential to recycle dead plants into the stable, rich organic carbon that makes soils productive. The microorganisms engaged in this process are also harmed by chemical use: scientists have discovered fewer kinds of helpful bacteria and fungi in soils where chemical fertilisers and pesticides are applied. These soils are becoming less biodiverse and less healthful for crops as a result. Soil stores roughly 1.6 trillion tonnes of carbon dioxide worldwide, but heavily disturbed soils with limited biodiversity rapidly lose that carbon to streams and the atmosphere, contributing to climate change.

Fishing

Unsustainable or destructive fishing has a negative influence on biodiversity. Around 34.4 percent of the world’s fish stocks are currently overfished, and if this trend continues, future generations will have fewer fish and biodiversity in the ocean. Overfishing has an influence not just on the fish that are harvested, but also on other marine species that interact with fishing vessels. Overfishing is the leading cause of loss in oceanic shark and ray species, which has decreased by 71% during the 1970s. Overfishing has consequences that extend beyond the maritime ecosystem. Fish is the primary source of protein for billions of people around the world, and fishing is the primary source of income for millions of people. Many people who earn a profession fishing, selling, and buying fish are trying to enhance global ocean resource management and conservation.

WWF collaborates with a wide range of stakeholders around the world to reform fisheries management, focusing on sustainable methods that not only protect ecosystems but also assure livelihoods and food security.

Mining

Mining operations that are poorly managed can pollute the environment and harm biodiversity, which supports economies, supplies food, fuel, building materials, and freshwater, and helps to offset the effects of natural disasters and climate change.

Mining firms require healthy ecosystems as well. They require adequate water supply, for example, and in coastal locations, mangroves may provide protection from storm surges. Mining is predicted to rise dramatically over the next 30 years, whether for bauxite, iron ore, coal, copper, tin, diamonds, or rare Earth metals. Significant changes are also expected in the sector.

Conclusion

The Earth’s environment is finite and vulnerable to destruction if population control is not implemented. To address the current scenario, which includes increased deforestation and desertification, decreased cropland, increased water pollution, decreasing ozone layer, and greenhouse effect, immediate action is required. It should be noted that population control will not solve all of the problems outlined above, but it will certainly give them more time to be resolved. Furthermore, population control aids in the alienation of environmental issues. Allowing the population to continue to rise eternally would be detrimental to the environment. Plants, animals, land, water, and humans all suffer as a result of overpopulation.