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  • Title: Expanding scale, increasing risk: population as an environmental issue.
    Author: Engelman R.
    Journal: J Med Assoc Ga; 1994 Nov; 83(11):629-33. PubMed ID: 7806992.
    Abstract:
    Rather than blaming our environmental problems on population growth alone or on dramatic increases in per capita consumption and rather than making dire predictions about the collapse of resources such as food supplies, it should be recognized that population growth puts pressure on the carrying capacity of the planet simply by increasing human activity. The environmental indicators which cause concern about the future include the fact that productivity has been sapped in almost 11% of the earth's surface, that 15.4 million hectares of tropical rain forest disappeared each year during the 1980s, that 1.7 billion people lack access to adequate drinking water, that pollution has depleted the ozone shield and threatens global warming, and that each year 27,000 species become extinct. The deforestation of Easter Island, which occurred as population grew between the 5th or 6th century and 1500 A.D., is an example of an ecosystem destroyed by population growth. When events like this happened in the past, people either colonized other places or survived in smaller numbers. However, today the world is full, and successful migration depends upon the good will of the receiving community (which is usually in short supply). As humanity concentrates in urban areas, emerging diseases will continue to take their toll. Researchers are attempting to develop models and identify mechanisms to contribute to our understanding of the many indirect ways that population affects the environment. Complicating factors include the fact that wealthier nations have a disproportionate (to their population numbers) effect on the environment and the fact that some ecosystems or resource bases are more vulnerable than others. In the meantime, population momentum will assure that population will continue to grow at unprecedented rates before it stabilizes when fertility declines outpace mortality declines. This stabilization is necessary to halt and ultimately reverse environmental degradation. This can be assured through the expansion of reproductive rights and the provision of high-quality, affordable, voluntary family planning services (at a cost of US $2 billion) to the 125 million couples in need of such services. Reducing poverty and gender inequities will also lower birth rates. There is no excuse to postpone this vital action.
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