Assignment No 03

Topic:

Population is bomb

Submitted to:
Sir Usman

Submitted By:
Shahzad ahmad

RollNumber:
18107002-030

Department:

Civil Engineering & Technology

 POPULATION IS BOMB

Pakistan is one of the countries where rapid population growth is endangering the environment
by expanding and intensifying agriculture, accelerating urbanisation and industrialization, and
destroying natural ecosystems. The goal of the current research is to examine how population
growth affects the availability of land, water, forest, and energy resources. A dwindling amount
of per capita agricultural land, forestry, and water resources are a major result of rapid
population increase. According to the data, high population growth rates result in rising
population densities and the number of individuals living in poverty. Population pressure
causes soil erosion and land degradation, which has an impact on the economy's base of
productive resources. Energy production and consumption in Pakistan have grown quickly as
a result of the country's expanding population and rising wealth.

Impacts of Population Growth on the Physical Environment

Physical environment refers to the natural world, including the land, the air, the water, the soil,
and the minerals. The expansion in human population has greatly increased the consumption,
abuse, and misuse of physical resources. More people implies more mouths to feed, which
necessitates higher agricultural production, as was previously said. By removing trees from
their natural habitats and reclaiming wetlands, ponds, and green spaces, more land has become
available for cultivation. In order to practise advanced agriculture, more water, fertiliser, and
pesticides must be used. The soil becomes infertile when fertilisers and insecticides are applied.
Forest clearing has major effects of its own and unbalances the environment as a whole.
The natural world, which includes the soil, the air, the water, and the minerals, is referred to as
the physical environment. The consumption, abuse, and misuse of physical resources have
significantly grown due to the growth in the human population. More people mean more
mouths to feed, which, as was previously said, calls for higher agricultural production. More
land has become accessible for cultivation as a result of removing trees from their natural
habitats and reclaiming wetlands, ponds, and green spaces. More water, fertiliser, and
pesticides need to be utilised in sophisticated agriculture. When fertilisers and insecticides are
used, the soil becomes infertile. Clearing forests has significant repercussions of its own and
throws the environment out of balance.

Air and water pollution

More and more forests are being removed as the population increases. Building homes for an
expanding population to dwell in and using wood as a fuel in industry are the two most frequent
causes of deforestation. As a result, trees that formerly assisted us in lowering air pollution by
photosynthesis are no longer able to do so. Global warming is one of the main concerns that
environmentalists all around the world have recently been having. Gases like carbon monoxide
allow sunlight like glass in a greenhouse, but they have a tendency to reflect the heat from the
ground below back upward, keeping it in the atmosphere. The term "greenhouse effect" refers
to this. The effects of population growth on the environment go beyond air pollution. These
days, one of the growing issues brought on by the population boom is water contamination.
Water is regarded as the source of all life. The need for more manufacturing is driven by the
growing population, just as it is in the case of air pollution. Water contamination is just one of
the pollutions that these factories cause. Additionally, because Pakistan is an agrarian nation,
chemicals used in agriculture are a contributing factor in water contamination. As we can see,
rising population numbers are causing pollution to increase, which in turn is making the
environment more unfriendly for people.

Deforestation

Pakistan's forests are a valuable natural resource. They have a negligible impact on floods,
protecting the land from erosion. By influencing the ecological balance and life support system
(controlling soil erosion, maintaining soil fertility, conserving water, regulating water cycles
and floods, balancing carbon dioxide and oxygen content in the atmosphere, etc.), forests also
play a significant role in improving the quality of the environment. India has 76.52 million
square kilometres of forest cover. but there are only 63.34 million square kilometres that are
actually covered in forests. The overall area covered by forests has shrunk by 6710 sq km
between 1993 and 1997. Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are the states where forest cover
has significantly decreased. Therefore, the ongoing deforestation has forced us to deal with a
serious ecological and socioeconomic catastrophe.

Depletion of ozone layer

The ozone layer shields the planet from the sun's UV rays. The impact of CFCs has steadily
destroyed the Ozone layer. These CFCs were employed as cleaners, refrigerants, propellants
for aerosols, and in the production of foam plastics. Because of this, the use of CFCs in aerosols
has been outlawed globally. The ozone layer may also be damaged by other substances, such
nitrous oxides from fertilisers and bromine halocarbons. Methane and nitrogen oxides are two
other substances that harm the ozone in the stratosphere. As the human population rose, the
concentration of CFCs increased, and the Ozone layer's thickness decreased to the point where
a hole in the layer was created. Scientists have discovered additional emissions from human
activity that have aided in the ozone layer's reduction. Antarctica was the first place where
ozone was destroyed. Not just that continent, but a number of others that might be affected by
Antarctica's melting icecaps are now in danger due to a significant hole in the ozone layer
directly above that continent.

Extinction of species

The full impact of the vast loss of species caused by human activity today is still not fully
recognised. The regions with the greatest diversity of non-human species and the greatest threat
from human activity are home to more than 1.1 billion humans. Despite making up only
roughly 12% of the planet's land area, these regions are home to almost 20% of all people.
Compared to the global population's annual growth rate of 1.3 percent, the population in these
biodiversity hotspots is expanding at a pace of 1.8 percent. Through water and wind erosion
caused by contemporary agricultural practises, the Earth loses its thin topsoil layer, destroying
the priceless microecosystem that takes centuries to build and sustains all land-based life.
Humans greatly value many species as sources of food, medication, fuel, and building
materials. Around the world, 10,000–20,000 plant species are utilised as medicines. The variety
of nature aids in satisfying people's requirements for recreation, emotion, culture, spirituality,
and aesthetics.

Land/soil degradation

Water and nutrients needed by plants and other living micro-macroorganisms are stored in the
land. The need for food, energy, and other necessities of life depends on maintaining and raising
land production. Numerous factors, many or maybe most of which are connected to human
growth, have contributed to the loss of arable land. Deforestation, over exploitation of wood
for fuel, overgrazing, agricultural practises, and industrialization are the main reasons.
Globally, overgrazing (35%), agricultural practises (28%), deforestation (30%), excessive land
usage for fuel-wood production (7%), and industrialization (4%), among other factors, are the
main causes of soil degradation. Several initiatives have been made at the national and regional
levels to establish monitoring and data collection methodologies as well as to formulate suitable
policies, programmes, and projects to prevent land degradation. At the national level, these
actions include managing watersheds, conserving soil and water, stabilising sand dunes,
reclaiming flooded and salty land, managing forests and rangelands, and restoring soil fertility
in arable lands through the application of green manures and the growing of suitable crops.
Global warming and climate change

One of the biggest hazards to the globe is global climate change. The issue is acknowledged to
be genuine and serious by both governments and scientists. Climate scientists agree that over
the past 140 years, the average global temperature has increased by around 1F (0.4C–0.8C).
The last five years have been among the seven warmest on record, and the 1990s were the
hottest decade of the millennium. About 15 days sooner than it did 30 years ago, spring now.
If the climate changes at all, it does so so slowly that people cannot see a difference during
their lifetimes. Scientists realised that a significant portion of the Northern Hemisphere had
formerly been covered by enormous ice sheets by looking back to distant ages.

Conclusion

The Earth's environment is finite and can be destroyed if we do not start population control.
Measures need to be taken now to correct the current situation which includes the increase of
deforestation and desertification, the decrease of farmland, more water pollution, the
deteriorating ozone layer, and the greenhouse effect. It should be known that population control
will not end all the problems mentioned above, but they would definitely allow more time for
them to be fixed. Also, population control helps alienate environment problems. The
alternative, letting the population grow indefinitely could only hurt the environment.
Overpopulation is a negative solution for everyone; plants, animals, land, water, and humans.