Population Growth: An Unsustainable Threat to the Environment - Essay Sample

Introduction

The impact of population growth has placed incredible pressure on the environment. As the population increases, human beings have continued to demand more natural resources thereby leading to depletion of such resources and hence leading severe environmental consequences like depletion of the ozone layer. In the last five decades, the world population has grown at an alarming rate than ever before (Philander, 2008). Therefore, the impact of the population growth has become a matter of concern to a various global institution. Notably, most countries that have been on the receiving end of these consequences are developing countries that are on the United Nation List of Developing Countries (LDCs). They include countries from North African, East Asia, West Asia, and South American countries. Therefore, the paper aims to analyze population growth consequences in Equatorial Guinea in relation to the challenges and various population control measures available.

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Effects of Greenhouse Gases in Equatorial Guinea

Greenhouse gases are gases that that are capable of absorbing heat from the environment. They comprise water vapour, Methane, Ozone, and carbon dioxide. The gases absorb the heat from the atmosphere and radiate the heat back to the earth surface thus resulting in the greenhouse effect (Philander, 2008). Moreover, the greenhouse gases create a significant effect on the energy budget of the earth system despite making only a small fraction of the atmospheric gases. Notably, the value of total greenhouse emission in Equatorial Guinea was estimated to be 6,356.17 (kt of CO2) as of the year 2012 (Philander, 2008). This figure is composed of the CO2 total emission excluding the biomass burning in the country such as Savannah and various agricultural related wastes burning. However, the figure is inclusive of biomass burning including peat fires, forest burning and post-burning decay (Mendelsohn & Dalfelt, 2000).

Many human-related activities in Equatorial Guinea such as burning fossils and clearing forest have worsened the greenhouse effect thereby leading to global warming. Moreover, global warming has been further increased by manmade activities in the country. This has subsequently led to an increase in the temperature above the sea level in Equatorial Guinea (Mendelsohn & Dalfelt, 2000).In turn; this has led to climatic change, therefore, affecting the ever increasing population of the country especially on its reliance on agricultural produce. Gases such as methane have caused dismal agricultural production in Equatorial Guinea as a result of climatic change arising from global warming.

Challenge of Greenhouse Gases

Since Equatorial Guinea is located in West Africa rich forest and coastal resources, the effects of the greenhouse gases have caused an increased risk due to increased drought and rising sea level. The country has faced the challenge of maintaining sustainable food security due to the pressure that the population growth has posted on the environment. This includes such activities as deforestation in the country (Mendelsohn & Dalfelt, 2000). Agriculture forms the economic backbone of Equatorial Guinea's economy practiced by about 70% of the active population. The population of the country has been actively involved in such agricultural activities as growing coffee, rice, cassava, bananas, oil and nut and livestock rearing (Mendelsohn & Dalfelt, 2000).

Therefore, global warming consequences have led to climatic change which has subsequently affected agriculture and creating pressure on food security. Therefore, as a result of the increasing population in the country, human beings have resorted to other economic activities like burning charcoal and clearing forest thereby creating more effects on climatic change (Held & Soden, 2006). Hence, the country's population have been on diminishing trends as the population increases and the effects on the environment also increase (Parry et al., 2004). Moreover, politicians in the country have been on alert due to increased pressure from the population to enact strict carbon dioxide emission limits especially from big offenders such as coal power plants.

Controlling Population Growth

Increased pressure on natural resources due to increased population growth has created a need for population control, especially in developing countries. Therefore, the following have been global ways of controlling the population. Empowering women. Studies have revealed that exposing women to reproductive health services have significantly reduced poverty through such means as birth controls (Cropper & Griffiths, 2016).The United Nations Population Fund has focused on addressing this concern. Moreover, the promotion of family planning like was in the case of Iran when the government enacted a national family planning program in 1989 led to the country's fertility rate decline from 5.6% to 2.5% within a decade. Lastly, is the one-child legislation. For instance in China this legislation caused controversy. However, it led to the fall in the fertility rate from 6.3% in 1960s to 1.4% in 2014 (Cropper & Griffiths, 2016).

Conclusion

In conclusion, increased population, especially in developing countries, have caused increased pressure on the available natural resources. This has subsequently led to increased human activities such as burning biomass that have greatly influenced the climatic condition of many countries. For instances, such countries as Equatorial Guinea that, mostly depend on agricultural activities have been on the receiving end of the consequences of global warming. Therefore, this has created a necessity of global initiatives to control population growth such as birth control and exposing women to reproductive health services.

References

Cropper, M., & Griffiths, C. (2016). The interaction of population growth control. The American Economic Review, 84(2), 250-254.

Held, I. M., & Soden, B. J. (2006). Robust responses of the hydrological cycle to global warming. Journal of climate, 19(21), 5686-5699.

Mendelsohn, R., Dinar, A., & Dalfelt, A. (2000). Climate change impacts on African agriculture. A preliminary analysis prepared for the World Bank, Washington, District of Columbia, 25.

Parry, M. L., Rosenzweig, C., Iglesias, A., Livermore, M., & Fischer, G. (2004). Effects of climate change on global food production under SRES emissions and socio-economic scenarios. Global environmental change, 14(1), 53-67.

Philander, S. G. (2008). Encyclopedia of global warming and climate change: AE (Vol. 1). Sage.