Relationships between population and environment

Relationships between population and environment

Population and environment relate with each other in terms of influencing the existence. The amount of population in an area influences its environment while the environment also influences population living in a certain. The environment has a certain limit of the population that can sustain reasonably while there is a limit of the population that can be sustained in an environment. Population growth means that it will require a sustainable environment to live when the population grows more than the sustainable levels then the environment is affected. The population and the environment have to balance for the two to co-exist sustainably.

The recent population boom in different parts of the world has affected the environment negatively, the environment responds by making the lives of the people difficult and in turn reduces the population to levels it can sustain successfully (Smil, 1999). The population explosion of the twentieth century exploited the environment to unsustainable levels. The environment is influenced to the extent that the environment responds; people over-exploit the environment as they find ways to survive.

The case of overpopulation in England and India is a clear example of how the population has grown over the year. The increase in population in India and England has affected the environment because the people require more environmental resources to survive (Cronon, 1983). The case of overpopulation in countries such as India help in understanding the environmental challenges affecting people in the world today. People put pressure on the environment to provide resources that they require to live. For instance, population increase makes people clear forests to find areas that they can build their houses to live in.  Overpopulation has increased the demand for food; hence people destroy the natural environment, the environmental challenges experienced today in the world are related to overpopulation.

Reference

Smil, V. (1999). The detonator of the population explosion. Nature, 400(6743), 415.

Cronon, W. (1983). Seasons of Want and Plenty. W. Cronon, Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England, 34-53.