Population Growth, Affluence And Environmental Problems.

Most scientists agreed that environmental problems are mainly a result of three main factors:

a)Population growth;

b)Increasing affluence;

c)Technological development.

Each factor of those has its own weight and mean of contribution in the environmental problems we are having nowadays. Scientists tried over years to express those factors and their effects, till Paul Ehrlich and John Holdren, developed the IPAT equation, where “I” represents effects we observe in the environment, “P” represents population size, “A” express affluence rate, mostly through calculating GDP per capita, “T” represents technological development rates, determined by impact per unit of income, so by substitution in the previous equation we could determine the impact in our environment, but before that we come to an important point which is the relation between the three factors. On focusing on increasing affluence and technology development, they have a directly proportional relation most of the time.

As affluence represents individual ability to afford, by increasing that ability, human nature tends more towards desire of getting that has a direct impact on technology industry and development as it always tends to cope with that increasing demand, by affording new products, new technologies and different series of the same product but with different features. On the other hand, population growth relation with affluence and/or technology depends more on the culture, geographical location.

In developed countries, population growth rates are almost stable, related with high affluence levels and high demand on new technologies as in Western Europe, Canada and Japan. In rich countries (high rates of natural resources), population rates are increasing, with high level of affluence and an increase demand for technology as in GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council Countries). In less developed and developing countries, the relation is totally reversed, by having high population growth rates, moderate and low affluence level, a demand for technology, but with a lack of affordability as in most African countries.

So relation between population growth, affluence and technology development is not an exclusive relation between these three factors, it is more controlled by other factors, such as social culture, geographical location and level of awareness. On individual basis, each factor has its own effect that could be observed in several cases around the globe.

Effect of population growth

India is a large country located southern Asia, with second highest population in the world. India is a developing country working hard to reach a developed stable economy, but during this process the increasing Indian population has an obvious impact on all environmental forms across that country.

1. Deforestation

In 2001, forests represented 675.54 thousand square kilometers (21% of the total area), that was way far from the national target to have forests area not less than 33% of the total area. The 675.54 thousand square kilometers having only 416.81 thousand square kilometer representing a real dense forest, while the rest of the forests area are facing the threat of being removed to be replaced by agriculture.

For fact in India, each million hectare of land supports 7.27 million people. 1These rates are considered severe indication on what the environment is facing in India, as a result of the high population growth rates, which comes with higher needs for food. Increasing needs led to a high pressure on the Indian soil that is facing degradation.

2. Pollution

India is a country with large number of cities, of different sizes starting from small ones up to metropolitan cities. Indian cities are considered of the most polluted cities in the world. According to the world Health Organization (WHO) “Air in metropolitan cities has become highly polluted and pollutant concentrations exceeds limit considered safe. “.The high population densities these Indian cities are having, increasing demands for energy, growing industries with different emissions and the huge daily traffic with all these vehicles’ emissions, all come together to make Indian cities dangerous for human health and the environment

Increasing Affluence and its effect on the environment

In 1960s, with oil extraction in the Arabic states located by the gulf, scene in these countries has changed over years, by the increasing global demand for oil, these states started to gain more and more, Forming high level of affluence across Gulf Cooperation Council countries. In 2001, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, one of the gulf important states (as considered now an international economical center), launched the idea of an artificial island by its coast and started working on getting the dream true.

In 2006, residents started to move to the island which was fully finished by 2011.That mega project came out from being an idea for Dubai ruler, to improve the image of Dubai as the luxurious city, but on focusing on an important point, Dubai still having lots of kilometers inhabited, needs development, with less effect on the environment, so what was the motive behind the artificial island. The increasing affluence those states have experienced after oil discovery and exportation, reflected mostly on life styles initiated their focusing on a very high demanding consuming culture.

The artificial island has effect on the ecological system there, causing several changes to the biodiversity in the gulf region. Dropping 5.5 million cubic meters of rock, 210 million cubic meters of sand, rock and limestone, adding to these 94 million cubic meters of sand has been brought from deep sea beds2, all these elements together changed the marine life and ecological system in the gulf region.

Those changes affected water clarity, coral reefs were buried during construction process, oysters we covered with higher levels of sand. With all the criticism have been presented to Dubai, the government continued working in the project and announced launching two similar projects in two locations by the coast of Dubai, with these major construction projects and high consumption rates, it contributes in transforming environment in the region into an unsustainable environment.

Technology development and its impact on the environment

Since industrial revolution started in Europe in 1760, technology is an important partner to industry, as it became the ultimate goal for technology is improving industry in means of production rates, efficiency, and profitability.

While technology is in continuous development to satisfy its goal towards industry, environment is degrading and suffering on the other hand. Technological development requires materials and earth elements, sometime very rare earth elements that we can extract through mining process that leads to a massive amount of wastes, beside earth resources are more of on a declining curve, extraction process becoming more difficult and expensive.

Nowadays, technology is developing in a very rapid rate that we cannot cope with, each day new products are coming out, targeting customers’ desire to get, that desire produces daily tons of disposed wastes, but without recycling, like all the smart phones we are using, all these lithium batteries are not recyclable products and cannot biodegrade. With all these wastes, produced daily pollution rates are increasing, forming new threats for the environment. As customers’ needs increase, industrialized communities are growing very fast, demanding a very fast developing technology, leading to more wastes and various forms of pollution.

What is meant by sustainable development?

Sustainable development is defined as “The organizing principle for meeting human development goals while at the same time sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services upon which the economy and society depend.” United Nations has adopted 17 goals towards a global sustainable development, on focusing on these goals, all related to human and the environment and how should we restructure and establish a better method in dealing with the environment in different fields. Regarding the three factors, mentioned previously and their contribution in the environmental issues, they also act as guidelines towards initiating sustainable development. Regarding technological development, we have to shift from getting culture towards having culture.

People should focus more on what they are having, enjoying, the available resources now, instead of following the need desire, that demands a totally different consuming culture and behavior. Creating a pre-determined research track, encouraging technological developments to be more towards how to reduce pollution, recycling waste, and focusing more on usage of biodegradable materials.

In terms of high affluence, should be investing more in green solutions and technologies, focusing on how to rationalize our consuming behavior. Beside determined tracks in affluence and technological rates, we have to control over population growth rates, regarding available resources. At the point of stable population growth rates, affluence and directed technological development, we will reach an equilibrium state, trying to provide different means of treatment for environment, then leading to the next step, establishing a sustainable human activity on different perspective, as creating more green businesses, working on higher awareness levels to create small bodies integrating together to focus on the environment on the three levels, global, regional and local.