Explore The Consequences Of Population Growth

The world’s population is expected to increase by 2 billion persons in the next 30 years, from 7.7 billion currently to 9.7 billion in 2050, according to a new United Nations report launched today. 

Global overpopulation has positive aspects for the development of society, but it also has negative effects on the planet. In the following lines, we list the most prominent of these:

• Increase in climate change

Climate change refers to the alteration of the climate, which is directly or indirectly attributable to human activity. Therefore, the more humans, the greater the impact. This is where greenhouse gasses come into play, which accumulate in the atmosphere and retain heat, increasing the greenhouse effect and contributing to an increase in the average global temperature.

• Decreased food security

According to the FAO, food security is when all people have permanent physical, social and economic access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food to meet their nutritional requirements. The population explosion affects the fundamentals of food security, i.e. its availability, stability, access and consumption.

• Impact on biodiversity loss

Biodiversity loss refers to the decrease or disappearance of biological diversity, understood as the variety of living beings that inhabit the planet. Population growth impacts on biodiversity by increasing human activity and the presence of the artificial over the natural, a phenomenon known as the anthropocene.

• Overexploitation of resources

Humans are depleting the planet's natural resources. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) warns: the current overexploitation of natural resources is generating a huge deficit, as 20 % more is consumed each year than can be regenerated and this percentage is growing steadily.

These are the consequences of overpopulation.