Ecology and Overpopulation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Ecology and Overpopulation - Essay Example Actually in the course of history in process of development of productive forces, the sizes of the territory necessary for maintenance of foodstuffs for one person have been constantly reduced. By some estimation, during prehistoric times when people lived due to collecting, to support one person it was necessary to develop from 25 up to 250 square kilometers. During an epoch of agriculture, a slaveholding epoch, this size has decreased and made already about 1 square kilometer. At feudalism it was reduced up to 0, 2 square kilometers, and presently makes from 0, 5 up to 2, 47 acres. The increasing population of a planet demands all greater escalating of rates of economic development to keep balance. However if to consider the present condition of technologies such growth will cause the increasing environmental pollution and even can lead to irrevocable destruction of nature. There is a question: is there a certain density of population of the Earth, which overcoming may become dangerous to its all inhabitants In this connection the law of Thomas Robert Malthus is interesting. In 1798 Maltus in his book 'Essay on the Principle of Population' has proved, that such threshold exists and mankind is doomed to reach it. He states that the growth of population occurs in geometrical progression, and the development of scientific and technical progress in arithmetic one. That is the progress can not provide all people due to too fast growth of the population. 'His population theory may be summarized as follows: as with other animals, human beings have a natural instinct to bear children to a physical maximum; under this 'fixity of passion' people tend to multiply at an exponential rate; where the production of food is constrained by the fixed endowment of natural resources, especially land, and can increase only arithmetically, whatever slack of food supply per ca pita beyond a subsistence level may exist will eventually be used up by increased population; further increases in population are bound to be checked by famines, pests, and wars of desperate competition for limited food supply; thus, it is not possible that the levels of living and income per capita for the majority of people can remain beyond a subsistence minimum in the long run' (Godo & Hayami, 2005: 73). The dynamics of population growth of the Earth confirms the given hypothesis: for a moment of the beginnings of new calendar - about 230 million people; 1000 - about 300 million (for one thousand years the population was not even doubled - it has increased less than in 1,5 times); 1850 - 1 billion; 1930 - 2 billion; 1976 - 4 billion; 1987 - 5 billion; 2000 - 6 billion; 2025 - 8 billion (is expected). Thus, if earlier for doubling the population it was necessary 1000 years, after 1850 it needed accordingly 80, 46, 50 years. That is now it may be observed the tendency of doubling the population within each 50 years (and most likely the given tendency will be kept due to uncontrolled and constantly extending increase of the population from Asia and Africa). By estimation of scientists, the Earth is capable to support 60 billion people. That is a quantity in 10 times exceeding today's population of the Earth (about 6 billion people). At preservation of contemporary (especially African and Asian) rates of increase of population (doubling within 50 years) the 'critical' threshold can be reached already by 2150 - 2200