Our Prodigious Population

From the origin of humans until the early 1900s, human population size had increased in a relatively stable manner. Around 1950, however, the pattern changed, as population size began the steep incline illustrated in the following figure.

facingthefuture.org

In just the past 60 years, four billion people have been added to the global population (Bongaarts 2009), bringing the grand total up to 7 billion individuals. The Industrial Revolution heavily contributed to this population explosion, by virtue of the innovative platform it provided, as well as the sudden expansion of fossil fuel usage. Following the Industrial Revolution, heightened public health awareness and a habitat shift from villages to cities further supported the increasing size of the population (Steffen et al., 2007).

The rapidly expanding human population quickly lead to an overwhelming human dominance over many of earth's ecosystems through direct and indirect effects. Some of the main factors contributing to increasing human dominance are agricultural and recreational land use, and overexploitation of resources (refer to the following figure) (Vitousek et al., 1997).  In fact, today, nearly 1/2 of land surfaces have been transformed by humans, and not a single ecosystem is left unaffected by the human race (Vitousek et al., 1997). 

Vitousek, et al., 1997

So many ecosystems, natural resources and species have been severely altered and damaged by human activity. It is ironic that all of the damage humans have inflicted thus far on their surroundings may eventually come full circle to damage our own race's well-being. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. eloquently explained this concept by saying:

"Unlike plagues of the dark ages or contemporary diseases we do not understand, the modern plague of overpopulation is soluble by means we have discovered and with resources we posses. What is lacking is not sufficient knowledge of the solution but universal consciousness of the gravity of the problem and education of the billions who are its victim."

Depicting ourselves as the ultimate victims of our own actions is a powerful tool when inspiring humans to chose to live more sustainably. And like Dr. King said, we already possess a great deal of knowledge about the problem at hand: we simply need to apply it to our lifestyles.

Works cited:

Steffen, Will, et all. The Anthropocene: Are Humans Now Overwhelming the Great Forces of Nature? Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 36.8: 614-621.

Vitousek, Peter M., et al. Human Domination of Earth's Ecosystems. Science 277.5325: 494-499.