World Population Growth Exceeding Ecological Carrying Capacity

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Earth’s rapid population growth has created an increased demand for resources such as water, lumber, soil, and livestock. Stabilizing world population is crucial to preserving vital environmental resources.
Earth’s rapid population growth has created an increased demand for resources such as water, lumber, soil, and livestock. Stabilizing world population is crucial to preserving vital environmental resources.
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“Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity” by Lester R. Brown identifies and explains the factors contributing to the world’s shrinking food supply.
“Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity” by Lester R. Brown identifies and explains the factors contributing to the world’s shrinking food supply.

Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity(W. W. Norton and Company, 2012) by Lester R. Brown explains why world food supplies are tightening, and what we need to do about it. A leading environmentalist, Brown examines the factors contributing to global food shortages. The following selection taken from Chapter 2: The Ecology of Population Growth discusses how increased human demand is depleting Earth’s natural resources.

The Ecology of Population Growth

Throughout most of human existence, population growth has been so slow as to be imperceptible within a single generation. Reaching a global population of 1 billion in 1804 required the entire time since modern humans appeared on the scene. To add the second billion, it took until 1927, just over a century. Thirty-three years later, in 1960, world population reached 3 billion. Then the pace sped up, as we added another billion every 13 years or so until we hit 7 billion in late 2011.

  • Published on Apr 7, 2016
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