Op-Ed
Human Sustainability
Human Sustainability
What does Earth mean to humans? Buffet? Rocks? Home? Trashcan? Slave? Superman? Is there a point in which the Earth can’t handle our needs anymore? As our population reaches 7 billion in October of 2011, these are questions that concern us. With more population that means more pollution, and more resources are needed to support the humans. However, are there enough resources on earth when the earth’s population reaches 10 billion? 15 billion? 20 billion? A growing population is not a problem that we should be worrying about, but if we don’t change our lifestyle it will be. Our natural resources are depleting faster than ever, and the climate of our world is also changing fast. Especially in Southeast Asia, where there are a lot of people, and a lot of pollution coming from those countries.
Currently, our world has a population of 6.8 billion. In 1500's, the world's population was 450 million. In 1800, the population was 1 billion. In 1950, the population was 2.55 billion. In 2000, the world's population was 6 billion. Scientists predict that by 2050 our world’s population would be around 7.5 billion and 10 billion. The world’s population has been on a steady rise for the since the 1400’s, it is easy to say that the last 50 years the world's population has grown faster than ever. From 1961 to 1992, our world population’s annual growth had always been higher than 1.5%. However the yearly growth has decreased in recent years with a growth of 1.11% in 2009. Even so, the world’s population is still growing very fast and out of control.
Water is all around us (literally), but you just can’t drink it. Water makes up 70% of the Earth, however only 2.5% of that water is actually fresh water. Also only some 1% of the fresh water is accessible to humans without doing much work, those include lakes, rivers, and reservoirs. Water is one of the most important things for life. Plants need water, animals need water, and humans need water. Agriculture takes about 86% of the annual fresh water withdrawal in Asia. An average person uses 340.7 gallons of water in a day. Now, with our population reaching 7 billion, it will become a big problem. At the same time, some 700 million Asians don’t have access to safe drinking water. Humans are also polluting the water with waster products, oil leaks, chemicals, and many more. So the actual amount of fresh water is getting lower, but new technologies have been helping to reduce the pollution in water. Poverty ties in with ties with water pollution. Much of the “slums” receive dirty and unsafe water, which can causes diseases such as cholera, malaria and diarrhea. 5 million people have died each year as a result of unsafe water. People need to conserve water, even though water is consider as “infinite” since it goes through cycles. However people are using water at a faster rate than it being replenished. Some of the solutions are to develop better ways in reusing the water. The government should not increase the price of water, because it would just make it waste for the poor people. Instead educating them about the importance of conserving the water is more important. Even though the water sanitation is really low, but the cities in Asia conserve the water better with a low 22% water leakage. Remember over one third of the world’s population doesn’t have enough water each day.
People in this world can’t live a day without the Internet. Documents are on the internet, meetings are held on the interment, and class study is also on the internet now. However in order to create all of these things, energy is needed. The usage and the production of all these energies will create large amount of pollution. Fossil Fuels products include oil, natural gas, and coal. Fossil Fuels generate a lot of energy such as electrical energy, transportation, and many more. Scientists are unsure exactly how much Natural Gas is left on earth, but they predict, at this rate, that by 2075 the natural gas would be all gone. Natural is the oil that automobiles need in order for it to run. However, there are alternatives of producing electricity besides using fossil fuels. Nuclear energy is a good replacement of fossil fuels, and it is the second on the electrical energy source for United States. Even so, nuclear energy is not unlimited. The amount of uranium is limited on earth, so it will still run out one day. Also accidents are like to occur for nuclear power plants, and the accidents usually create releases large amount of radioactivity. In the march of 2011, after a magnitude of 9.0 massive earthquakes, the nuclear power plants near that area had a meltdown. There are other renewable resources, but it is not that reliable. Not everywhere can have the benefit of solar, wind, or water power. People need to change their life style around, if they want to be able to use these energy resources for a longer period of time. When the population grows more people are going to have automobiles, which mean the rate of natural gas depleting will be faster. Taking the subway, buses, and other public transport are good ways to reduce the usage of natural gas, and it can also reduce pollution. 72% of the nitrogen oxide pollution actually comes from automobiles. Another major source of pollution is factories, especially fossil fuel factories. A coal power plant produces 10,200 tons of nitrogen oxide, which causes the lungs to be more susceptible. Many chemical factories also produces large amount of pollution. There are currently 112 nuclear plants right now in Asia, and Asia will build nuclear plants in a very fast rate. The world currently has around 500 nuclear plants. Right now China is first and Japan is fifth, on the total Carbon Dioxide emission annually. The government of each country needs to be stricter on the factories, so that the factories won’t produce that much pollution.
The nature may not seem essential to human sustainability, but it still plays an important role for humans. With the growing population of humans, the amount of wild land is decreasing. As our population grow rapidly people need new homes, so cutting down forests for human’s new houses and new buildings is common throughout the world. About 18 million acres of forests are cut down each year. Deforestation will worsen the global warming problem, because trees can regulate the temperature on earth. The forests have the ability to suck in pollution through their pores, in 2009 the Amazon Forest absorbed 1.5 million metric ton of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Deforestation also destroy plants and animal’s habitats, thus it will produce problem to the food chain. Then pretty soon extinction of animals will be seen in that forest. A lot of natives who depends on agriculture from the forest are also being affected by deforestation. The rainforest’s soil is full of nutrients to grow different plants, but once the trees are cut it will lose its nutrients. Another major reason for deforestation is for raising the livestock. When the world demands more meat, more forests are cut for the cattle to stay in. The government has a lot of power to stop this problem. They can set tighter laws to companies about cutting down forests. In Southeast Asia, there are a lot of tropical rainforests especially in Indonesia and Malaysia. In the last 15 years, over 10 million hectares of forest lands are lost in Asia. A lot of the forests are cut down for more agriculture and industry in Asia. Educating the people about deforestation is also a very important factor for help stopping deforestation.
People who are living in slums have to pay 5 to 10 time more for a liter of water than wealthier people in the same city. Air pollution from factories causes 656,000 Chinese people to die each year in China. In 30 years, scientists predict that earth would be without a forest. There are many more facts to prove the damage that humans have done to earth. However there is still more hope for earth. Throughout the article, it stated that the government has to do a lot of things to save the earth. Nevertheless, the people still have the duty to protect the earth. All of these problems and more will arise as a result of the large amount of human population, so the human race need to all step in and solve it. We need to take of earth, since it has taken care of us for such a long time. Earth has taken abuses from humans especially in the last 60 years. Now with people on earth more than ever, it is a task that the humans must do. People shouldn’t think that with more population, it means more burden for the earth. Instead, people should believe that, with a larger population it means more people to save the earth.
Info graphic (Fertility Rate)
Problem and Solution
Problem
How are modern metropolises, such as Kaohsiung, going to handle all of these problems caused by overpopulation?
Solution
Taiwan releases over 270 million tons of carbon dioxide each year. Taiwan ranks 24th in the total CO2 emissions annually, and remember Taiwan has only 35,980 km2, pretty small. Well, a lot of the pollution comes from automobiles. Automobiles cause 72% of the nitrogen oxide pollution in the world. More people, that means more cars, so we need to find a better way of transportation. Bicycles are one of the best ways to solve this problem. In Copenhagen, Denmark over one thirds of the 2 million people have a bike. The government had developed “green way” for the bikers to avoid traffic with the cars. Copenhagen is a model of how green a city can get. The city will be carbon-neutral in 15 years, which means that the amount of carbon produced will be equal to the amount of carbon taken from the atmosphere.
Well, transportation and hunger are closely related to each other. Today, foods are carried by trucks which causes pollution, and the trucks have to travel a long distance to get the food to cities. It will be really expensive for the gas needed to travel, and the trucks releases large amount of air pollution. I believe it is a great idea to have farms very close to cities. Thus this way, when the gasoline prices rise the food prices won’t rise too. Some cities such as Caracas, Venezuela have already started “urban farming”. The government of Caracas has opened some farms in the center of the city. However a city can’t totally depend on urban farming, it is just not enough to feed the whole city. According the Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations, the world produces enough food to give each person in the world each day with three full meals. In fact, each person can get at least 2,720 calories a day. That is 500 calories more than the amount that a person need each day for a health life! Also with the new technology that we have, it is very easy to produce mass amount of food in a small period.
Slums, informal settlements, are very common in Asia and the rest of the world. 550 million people live in slums in Asia today. A lot of people in there are in poverty. Slums are notable for overcrowding. One of the major problems with slums is the sanitation. The water in the slums is not clean enough for humans to drink. Thus people will die from diseases such as cholera, diarrhea, malaria, and dysentery. Over 5 million people die each year from water related diseases. How does this relate to overpopulation and major cities? Slums are usually located in overpopulated cities, and poverty is in common sight all around slums. People who live in slums are really low-class workers, who came to the city for jobs and hopes for a better future. Overpopulation and poverty can work both ways. When there are a lot of people in a city, not everyone will have the ability to live in expensive suburbs. So a lot of people will have to go live in slums. However, blaming just overpopulation for poverty will not solve the problem; the government needs to look at other factors such as job offerings, education, and housings. There are some solutions to this problem that city governments can do. First not all of the major industries should be in cities, because these way workers don’t have to all cram into a city. When all the people are crammed together, the housing prices will rise and slums will occur. In cities, there should be more job offerings for the people living in poverty. Also in order to decrease the informal settlements, the governments need to have stricter laws regarding housing orders. At the same time, the governments need to make affordable and cleaner housing for the people living in poverty.
Overpopulation causes many problems such as poverty, hunger, and climates changes, but overpopulation itself is not a problem. However, I do believe that family planning is important. Scientists believed that over 40% of the births are unintended, and family planning is a great way to solve that problem. Educating people about unwanted pregnancy and teenage pregnancy will decrease the fertility rate. It has shown that women, who have been through a year or two of secondary schooling will have a fertility rate of 1.9. For those who haven’t been to education, they will have an average of 4.5 children. Education does work, and it is a very ethical way to solve this problem. I am not saying that I don’t like the population to be lower or higher. I am saying that with great family planning it can reduce hunger and poverty, because a family should really consider about how many children can they afford to handle. A family living with 2 dollars a day shouldn’t have 18 kids running around. Different cities should definitely provide and even have mandatory classes for family planning. Cities shouldn’t consider depopulation at all.
