Facts
- Estimated World Population: 8.1 billion in 2024
The Human Population & Biodiversity
- The UN estimates it will increase to 10.9 billion in the year 2100
How is growth still possible?
- About 4 people are born & about 2 people die every second around the world
- Medical advances, lower mortality rates, and an increase in agricultural productivity (processed foods) allows the population to continue to grow.
- We are growing exponentially!
- Buildings are now being built upwards and closer together, using vertical space and saving the area we have left on the ground.
Humans & Biodiversity
- Biodiversity- the variety & variability of life on Earth
- The more we grow, the more resources we need; which leads to:
Ecological Footprint
- Over harvesting/hunting plants & animals
- Deforestation
- Habitat fragmentation
- Pollution
- It is the amount of environment required to support a lifestyle
- Many of our activities also lead to climate change which affects biodiversity
- Can be calculated by measuring resources a person uses to survive
- This can include (but is not limited to):
Human Carrying Capacity
- Carrying Capacity: The amount of organisms the environment can sustain
- The earths resources are limited which means there is a carrying capacity for humans
- Calculating it is difficult, and it seems to shift constantly
- Humans don't reproduce, consume resources, or interact with the environment uniformly
- It would take 1.8 Earths to sustain our current population, and we could reach 3 Earths by 2050
EQ: How is the human population growing and impacting biodiversity?