Rapid Population Growth Essay

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According to the UN’s calculations there are more than 7 billion people on the earth today when 200 years ago there were less than 1 billion. Populations have grown 3 times faster between the 1900’s and 2000’s (Ortiz-Ospina, E, & Roser, M, 2016) Rapid population growth is a cause for alarm because of many factors. The drastic increase in population could cause detrimental factors for societies and the world as a whole. Factors including environmental strain, governmental strain in producing services, cramped and unhealthy living conditions. A city or countries population can grow because of many reasons such as migration, increase in birth rates and decrease in death rates.

Johannesburg’s Inner City
Johannesburg can be used to show how population increases can lead to harsh living conditions. Johannesburg’s inner city has been described as “overcrowded, dangerous, dirty, mysterious and illegible to the uninitiated.”(Murray 2011 pg: 144). Around 400 000 people live within an estimated 42 000 residential units (Murray 2011). …show more content…

The number of non indigenous Brazilians living in the Amazon has increased from 2 million to around 20 million since the 1960s. Another contributing factor is that industrial logging has increased within the rainforest as well as the building of new roadways for easier access for logging companies. This puts a strain on the deeper more dense areas of the rainforest as access has become easier. Wildfires created by people are another factor that is contributing the destruction of the Amazon. All these activities can be attributed to human activities and the increase of the population within the Amazon, making the point that with population increases the environment suffers as more resources are needed for more