The Environmental Degradation as a Result of Overpopulation

Although third world countries do have a far larger population than industrialized nations, and the trend is constantly increasing, their populations should not bear the responsibility for our population-enduced degrading environment. The impact we make on the biosphere is sometimes expressed mathematically by ecological economists as I = PAT. I being impact, P population, A affluence (consumption) , and T technology (environmentally bad technology)(Ehrlich and Ehrlich, 1990).

(more content follows the advertisement below)
A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Concern regarding population increases often focuses on the third world, since it is there that growth is exponential. Yet, it is necessary to recognize that people are by no means equal or identical in their consumption, and thus their impact on the environment.

Our Forests

�The sky is held up by the trees. If the forest disappears the sky, which is the roof of the world collapses. Nature and man perish together.� - Amerindian legend

Forests are a precious link in the life systems of our planet. They are a part of these vital ecosystem services without which earth would not have been habitable by the human species in the first place and would certainly have become inhabitable again. Forests have crucial roles in the carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen cycles that nourish and sustain life on earth.

They protect the watersheds that support farming and influence climate and rainfall(Lindahl-Kiessling, 1994, p.167). They save the soil from erosion and are home to thousands of species, and forest peoples whose lives depend on them. They are also a source for industrial and medical purposes.

In developing countries, much deforestation is for both local purposes and for export. The UNFPA (United Nations Fund for Population Activities) said in it�s 1990 report that population growth may have been responsible for as much as eighty percent of the forest land cleared between 1971 and 1986 to make room for agriculture, cattle ranching, houses, roads and industries(Ramphal, 1992, p.55).

It is estimated that in that period nearly sixty million hectares of forest were converted to farmland and a similar amount of forest was put to non-agricultural uses. This is equivalent to the mass of twelve hundred square metres of forest added to the population.