Population Growth

With the world population at a level that has never been seen, many wonder if we will
cause lasting damage to the earth. Resource depletion, species extinction, and rising poverty are
commonly attributed as effects of this population growth. However, while these three negative
consequences may be directly related to population, this population growth is not necessarily the
root cause of these problems. In fact, in many cases, an increase in population may actually
help. There are many other problems in our current society that should be addressed first,
though, if the primary goal is to slow these issues.
As population continues to increase, and currently stands at over 7 billion people, one
would question as to whether or not the resources of the earth will be able to continually refresh
itself. Currently, the population is at about 1.5 times the sustainable level (Souza). This means
that we would need one and a half earths to sustain what we currently consume as a species
without ever running out of recourses. While some may say that overpopulation is the main
cause of cause of this problem, there is another, larger factor: overconsumption. The United
States is by far the worst offender of this overconsumption, by using significantly more recourses
per person than any other part of the world. While the United States only makes up
approximately five percent of the worlds population, we make up 20 percent of the total energy
usage (World Population). Compared to the Philippines, the average person in the United States
uses 77 times as much energy per person. This number is slightly misleading, because a much
higher portion of the Philippines lives in poverty, and small-scale farmers and fisherman make
up a decent portion of their population. While getting everyone in the United States to only use
1/77th of their total energy usage would not be plausible, by comparing the total usage to a
country that is more similar to the United States, like Germany, a much more realistic goal can

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be seen. The average American uses about 1.9 times as much energy as their fellow German
counterparts. If every American lived a more modest lifestyle like the Germans, then the world
would see a drop in consumption of almost ten percent! This would be an incredibly huge drop
overall, and would come from just a tiny part of the total population. So while a higher
population does mean a higher energy consumption, overconsumption is the first problem that
should be addressed when trying to fix the worlds resource depletion.
Species extinction is another topic that is up for debate. While population growth is a
large factor, I do not believe it to be the root cause of this crisis. The increase of human
consumption has led to deforestation, pollution, and many other factors that cause species to
become extinct. To show this, you can look at the population growth compared to the number of
species that go extinct each year. While the exact number of species that go extinct may be
unknown, estimates can still be used to compare. Population growth is not a new thing, while
species extinction is. Once the worldwide population hit 1 billion people in 1804, it took a little
bit over 100 years for it to double to two billion. In this time, while the number of extinctions
did see a slight rise, it is nothing compared to the huge amount of extinctions that occur now. In
around 1990, for example, the number of populations that went extinct each year was close to
25,000. Today, that number is about to close in on 50,000 (Kelly). When looking at the total
population, one can see that it only went up from 5.3 to 7 billion, which is only about 1.32 times
as much. How come the number of extinctions have doubled when the world population is still
years away from doubling? And how come the number of extinctions did not rise as
significantly when the population doubled in the 1800-1900s? This is because population is not
the root cause of this increase. It is the way that we currently live our lives that is causing most
of the resource extinctions. If the population growth was directly related to how species

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extinction, the world would have seen a much bigger hit in the 1800s when this rapid growth
began.
Worldwide, poverty levels are dropping, while the population continues to increase. A
significant portion of the worldwide population growth comes from developing countries, like
Africa. In this developing world, huge amounts of people live in poverty. In 1990, 43 percent
lived at or below $1.25 per day in these developing areas. However, by 2011 this number
dropped all the way to 17 percent (World Bank), despite the worldwide population increasing by
almost 2 billion people. So, while the population of these regions has increased, the overall
poverty levels have seen a massive decrease! Although poverty is still a massive problem, the
dropped rates in poverty have been seen worldwide (Ruthrauff). From a cornucopian view,
population increase actually could help to decrease poverty rates overall. This means that each
new person born provides one more person to potentially come up with a solution that could save
thousands of people. By this idea, population should keep increasing if we want the poverty
levels to continue to plummet. So, unlike resource depletion and species extinction, population
growth may not have any negative effect on the poverty in the world, but my actually help to
decrease poverty.
So while population growth may be correlated with recourse depletion, species extinction
and rising poverty, it is not the root cause. The main issue that should be first addressed when
trying to slow resource depletion and species extinction is the overconsumption, especially that
in the United States. The poverty levels, however, have actually been shown to decrease with the
increase of population. So while population is directly related to these three problems, and
causes a large factor, it is not the primary cause.

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Works Cited

Kelly, Donald T. "Human Population Growth And Extinction." Human Population Growth and
Extinction. Center for Biological Diversity, 24 Feb. 2015. Web. 03 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/population_and_sustainability/
extinction/>.
Population, World. "Population and Energy Consumption." Population and Energy
Consumption. World Population Balance, 2014. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.worldpopulationbalance.org/population_energy>.
Ruthrauff, Alex. "Hunger and Population Growth." Hunger and Population Growth: Correcting
a Common Misunderstanding. Action Against Hunger, 27 Oct. 2011. Web. 03 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/blog/hunger-and-population-growth-correctingcommon-misunderstanding>.
Souza, Mike D. "Humans Consuming More Resources than Earth Can Sustain: Report."
Www.canada.com. Postmedia News, 4 Oct. 2010. Web. 03 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.canada.com/technology/Humans+consuming+more+resources+than+Earth+
sustain+report/3663750/story.html>.
World Bank. "Poverty." Overview. The World Bank, 7 Oct. 2014. Web. 02 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty/overview>.