The Social Impact of Population Growth
Kyle Hungarter
Strayer University
8/1/2020
Introduction
The greenhouse gases contribute to the greenhouse effect and they include carbon dioxide, water vapor, chloroflourocarbons, nitrous oxides, and methane. The greenhouse effect, therefore, refers to the warming of the climate resulting when the atmosphere traps heat that is radiating from Earth toward space. As the human population grows, demand for food, fuel, and other resources rises. This increase results in amplified human activities that escalate the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. In the atmosphere, greenhouse gases lead to temperature upsurge and cause glaciers and ice to melt. This eventually leads to global warming, which greatly affects the life of human beings.
Greenhouse Gases and Global Warming
Greenhouse gases refer to certain gases that are found in the atmosphere and which resemble glass in a greenhouse since they allow sunlight to pass into the Earth, which is the greenhouse in this case but blocks the heat on Earth from escaping into space. The greenhouse gases contribute to global warming because as human activities on earth change the natural greenhouse, they bring some effects that lead to global warming. The burning of fossil fuels like oil and coal has increased the amount or concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide. The clearing of land for industry or agriculture also raises the concentration of other greenhouse gases like methane. The increased greenhouse gases will make the earth to become warmer. The effect of a stronger greenhouse effect will warm the oceans and partially melt ice and glaciers and this increases sea level. When the ocean water warms, they also expand and this contributes to further rise in sea level. Carbon dioxide contributes to 53% of the global warming level. Carbon dioxide results from such processes as production of cement, deforestation, and fuel use. The effect of methane on global warming is 15 percent. Methane results from such activities as oil and natural gas distribution, sewage treatment, agriculture and livestock production, fuel use, and coal mining. Halogenated compounds like NF3, SF6, PFCs, HFCs, HCFCs, and CFCs contribute 11% of global warming and they come about from air conditioning and refrigeration, medicine, electrical and electronic equipment (Scovronick, et al., 2017).
Challenges of Greenhouse Gas Emission
As per the World Bank report, developing countries already contribute over half of the total carbon emissions. As these developing countries grow, this percentage will rise. Developing countries are using fossil fuels to end rampant poverty and a functional economic system since fossil fuels are the cheapest and most reliable sources of energy. Therefore, unless something changes, developing countries will not be able to fight climate change and end poverty. What will happen is that when economies grow in developing countries, global warming is going to be accelerated. The reason for this is that these developing countries cannot afford alternatives. The developing countries that are decreasing their poverty rates are unfortunately increasing the rates of carbon emissions. This is not affecting the wealthier countries because these countries have been looking for alternative forms of energy because they have resources. Across the world, scientists expect countries that are developing like India to be hit hardest by changes in rainfall and rising temperatures. These developing countries also have limited financial resources as well as weak infrastructure and they will struggle to adapt and sustain their economic growth. The biggest offenders, in this case, are the developed industrialized countries who release a lot of greenhouse gases (Scovronick, et al., 2017).
Population Growth
One of the ways of reducing population growth globally is that of reducing fertility. In developed countries, married couples have resorted to reducing birth rates in Western Europe by modifying their sexual behavior to have fewer children. These changes constitute part of the social and economic changes that came with modernization and industrialization of Western Europe. One of the factors that underlie this particular change in attitude is the change in the economic effects of childbearing. In the urban industrialized world, children do not serve as a key economic asset but they are more of an economic burden because they are not helping with chores the way they did in a pre-industrial, agrarian society. One of the social factors that might contribute to the change in attitude is the decline in the significance of the family as an important economic unit in the modernization and industrialization of Europe. The family is no longer considered as a unit of production in an industrialized economy. That is why it is common to see children leaving home to seek or look for jobs and at this point, parents will no longer count on support by their children. Modernization has also allowed for public education to be extended to women and this means that the traditional subordinate role of women is changed. Because the child care burden falls mainly on women, the rise and modification in status constitute an important element that develops an attitude that favors deliberate limitation of family size (Shaw, 1992).
Availing contraceptives in less-developed countries and educating the people about the importance of family planning is also a very important way of controlling population growth in the world. This is because the rate of population growth in less-developed countries is very high. The less-developed rate has high birth rates and recently, modernization has enabled these countries to get improved drugs and this has reduced the mortality rates by a big margin. Reduced mortality rates and increased birth rates have led to bigger populations. Modernization and industrialization can also bring social and economic changes that will compel the less developed countries to consider raising smaller families like Western counterparts (Scovronick, et al., 2017).
References:
Shaw, R. P. (1992). The impact of population growth on the environment: the debate heats up. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 12, 11.
Scovronick, N., Budolfson, M. B., Dennig, F., Fleurbaey, M., Siebert, A., Socolow, R. H., … & Wagner, F. (2017). Impact of population growth and population ethics on climate change mitigation policy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(46), 12338- 12343.