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Human Population

Human population growth has caused many environmental problems as more people need more resources from the environment. After the Industrial Revolution, improvements in food, healthcare and sanitation led to exponential human population growth, from 1 billion in 1850 to over 6 billion currently. This large population size threatens the Earth's limited resources and carrying capacity. As population increases, so do the production of waste and pollution, habitat destruction, and stress on the food supply. Rapid human population growth is often responsible for increasing demand on food production, loss of farmland, and air pollution.

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36 views9 pages

Human Population

Human population growth has caused many environmental problems as more people need more resources from the environment. After the Industrial Revolution, improvements in food, healthcare and sanitation led to exponential human population growth, from 1 billion in 1850 to over 6 billion currently. This large population size threatens the Earth's limited resources and carrying capacity. As population increases, so do the production of waste and pollution, habitat destruction, and stress on the food supply. Rapid human population growth is often responsible for increasing demand on food production, loss of farmland, and air pollution.

Uploaded by

stephanievogel
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Human Ecology

ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
List 3 ways humans damage the
environment.

Human Ecology- the study of the relationship


between humans and the environment
Most of todays serious environmental problems are
related to human population growth.

For thousands of years, the human


population grew slowly.
After the Industrial Revolution, food
supply increased, health care
improved, sanitation improved, there
was widespread immunization
This caused exponential growth
(extremely rapid growth) of the human
population

1850-----1 billion people


1930-----2 billion people
1970-----4 billion people
Now----more than 6 billion people

What is the Earths Carrying Capacity???


Carrying Capacity- the number of
humans the Earth can support based on
limited resources.
Limited Resources- Food, water, space,
oxygen.

The more people there are, the more


resources they need. These resources
come from the environment.
More people also produce more waste,
which must be disposed of or recycled.
Overcrowding and lack of food also
become problems when populations
become very large.

Urbanization & Industrial


Growth have increased
the amount of Pollutants
in the atmosphere

Some ecologists are concerned that the


human population has outgrown the
capacity of many Earths ecosystems. The
natural limiting factor that will most likely
prevent further human population growth in
many parts of the world is:
1. habitat destruction
2. political intervention
3. food supply
4. social intervention

Which of these human activities is quite often


responsible for the other 3 human activities?
1. increase demand on limited food
production
2. rapid increase of loss of farmland due to
soil erosion
3. rapid increase of human population
4. increasing levels of air pollution

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