3. What does overpopulation mean?
ο Overpopulation is when there are to many people for
the available ground and resources to support
everyone.
4. Resources:
ο The Earth has a limited area where people can
live and also limited resources.
ο The Earth also have limited carrying capacity- it is
the number of people an area can support on a
sustained basis given the available space, resources
and the prevailing technology.
5. ο Our resources needs to be used on a sustained basis
for our population to keep on growing.
ο Therefore sustainable development is the idee that a
community can develop and survive if the resources
to their disposal is used on such a manner to ensure
the survival of the community.
6. A few consequences of overpopulation:
ο World population:
ο Is currently more than 7 billion.
ο 80% of the worlds population is from less developed
countries.
ο Population growth is high in these countries.
ο Average growth of 1.5% per year.
ο In economically developed countries the average
growth is 0.2% per year.
ο Poor counties maintain much more people and very
little resources.
7. Water:
ο The demand for water increases as the population
grows.
ο One third of the worlds population live in counties
with medium to high levels of water shortages.
8.
9. Agriculture:
ο As the population increases, the availability of
agricultural land decreases.
ο New agricultural land is not always avaliable.
ο People need to plant more food on the available land.
ο It is expensive and not always possible.
10.
11. Deforestation:
ο The Earth is losing its forests.
ο Between 2000 and 2010 13 million hectar of forests
were destroyed.
ο Forests are important for ecosystems, climate ect.
12.
13. Food:
ο Undernourished people in the word has increased
form 857 million in 2000 to 925 million in 2010.
ο There are no shortages of food on Earth, distribution
and availability of food is the problem.
14.
15. Urbanization:
ο More and more people live in towns and cities.
ο By 2030 75% of the worlds population will be
urbanized.
ο Increasing urbanization goes coupled with
overpopulation and informal settlements without
the necessary infrastructure.
ο Leads to the decrease in the standards of how
people live.