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    Human population growth as an environmental issue

    Because more than 81 million people per year are added to the human population, there persists a debate about the relative capacity of the Earth to sustain our current and projected population growth. Chief environmental factors negatively impacted by a human population beyond carrying capacity are biodiversity, ecosystem services and sustainable agriculture.

    The issue influences political decision making on national and international levels, because of the sorts of social programs directed to sustain women, children and families and the investments made by nations in promoting family planning, neo-natal (newly born children) care, and fertility control measures; moreover, matters of agricultural strategy and water resource use are strongly influenced by man's assessment of human population exceeding carrying capacity.
     
    Since gains in life expectancy as of the 1950s have occurred unevenly among nations, one driver of population growth since 1850 has been the increasing longevity among, especially affluent and peaceful, populations in the world. For example: in China, Honduras and Sweden the life expectancy, or age at which people in the population statistically may be anticipated to die, have all increased, while in Kenya it has declined since 1950.
     
      
     
    7BillionWorld.com - interesting page full of stick figures
    National Geographic - feature issue of population: 7 billion  (video)  - 7 billion video
     
    World Population Day - June 11th (see video of female empowerment) 

      
     
    Gapminder
     
      Unicef logo  - What are your chances? 
     
     
    Breathing Planet - fascinating comparison of population and carbon emissions per capita
     
    Population Studies - Environmental Literacy Council
     
     
    Footprints & Milestones: Population and Environmental Change - State of World Population in 2001
     
    VIDEOS:
     
     
    “The People Bomb”, CNN Video
    “The Human Footprint”, National Geographic

     
    WEBSITES:
    A great website to find age structure diagrams is www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/