World Population

Conservation
Growth
Feyton Inc.
Notice
Weekly Conservation Note
“Managing and preventing future forest loss, while The toxification of the planet escalates, bringing
considering the needs of a rapidly increasing frightening problems for organisms ranging from polar
human population, will be one of the greatest bears to frogs (to say nothing of people!).
environmental challenges of the upcoming
decades.”
Talking about conservation, population growth demand
greater quantities of food supply. This demand increase in
transportation hence increase in air pollution and habitat
By the time Jesus Born in Jerusalem, the world population
fragmentation due to increase in roads demands.
was around only 250 million people. It took the population
1650 years to double to 500 million years, and only 200 Food insecurity.
years to reach 1 billion. Currently the world population is
around 7 billion and we expect to hit 8 billion in 2030. The majority of the severest crises after the second half of
the 20th century was caused by several factors combined.
At this rate The most common causes in Africa were drought and
of other extreme weather events. As there is high food
population demands, farmers are in need of large area to produce
growth, enough food to satisfy growing world population. They
world move to marginal lands. Forest is the victim of this
resources demand.
will be
limited to 10-20% of the
serve 8+ world’s
billion grasslands have
people. As been destroyed
population for agriculture.
increases Of the 16 million
also the demand of products increases in response to that km2 of tropical
growth. rainforests that
once existed,
 Greater quantities of plastics, just around 9
 Industrial chemicals, million km2
 Pesticides, exists today,
 Fertilizers, with forests in South East Asia disappearing most rapidly.
 Cosmetics,
 And medicines, We are creating large farming areas by destroying all
necessary factors to sustain microclimate for crops to
grow. Ask yourself, what will happen after converting all
forest areas to farming areas?
Housing
The era of single family per house is reaching its end, as
some government are responding to the great demand of
house by using 4 in 1 housing strategy. However, this will
not be enough once we continue to grow at this rate. New
strategies are in need to control population increases.
The greater demand of houses led to forestland
conversion. This demand has led to destruction of natural
forests in order to find a place for people to build their
homes.
As conservationist, we call engineers to find appropriate
plans to reduce destruction of forests. The housing
problems, cause mass harvesting of forest for poles to the
rate faster than the forests can recovers.
Fertilizers
As fertilizer may be beneficial to the plants, they are not
always as healthy for the rest of the environment. High
amount of nitrogen can find their way into waterways,
causing excess of algae and a resulting loss of oxygen in
the water. Many countries rely on agriculture so that
fertilizers and other agrochemicals are in high demand but
there are countries out there, which rely on fishing. The
high usage of fertilizers will result to decreases in fishing
production, as loss of oxygen in aquatic environment will
kill a lot of fishes and aquatic animals.
We are not claiming to stop using fertilizers but in legal
quantity. Farmers in need of high yield are ready to use
whatever amount of agrochemicals to ensure high
productivity, and we both know that these chemicals are
not that healthy to the environment.
Industrial chemicals
Industrial and manufacturing processes create solid and
hazardous waste. Medical supplies are in high demand. On
planet of earth where speed is in demand, faster
technologies are advancing rapidly using enormous large
amount of energy and resources and leaving behind
environmental pollutants. If the population continue to
increase at this rate, then industrial chemicals like
medicines and cosmetics will increases. The problem is
the current lack of information on the safety of chemicals
on the market as well as the amount of hazardous
substances being released into the environment during use
and disposal of chemical products will pause a major
challenge the next two decades. (OECD 2018).
Case study on forestland conversion.
The conversion of forests for agriculture is a historic
process that is unlikely to stop in the near future. So far, in
Indonesia and Malaysia, and wider parts of the world, this
conversion has taken place in lowland areas home to some
of the world’s most endangered animals. Managing and
preventing future forest loss, while considering the needs
of a rapidly increasing human population, will be one of
the greatest environmental challenges of the next few
decades.
Hopefully,
lessons can be
learned from
one of the
greatest
environmental
disasters in
history,
Indonesia’s
‘Mega Rice
Project’. The
Mega Rice
Project was a plan by former Indonesian president Suharto
to make Indonesia self-sufficient in rice production. The
project proposed to convert 796,000 hectares of peat
swamp forest in Central Kalimantan in to rice fields, with
an additional settlement program to relocate 316,000
transmigrant families to the area. Despite not carrying out
a cost benefit or sensitivity analysis, and repeated
warnings by scientists that the project would fail and the
depth of the peat made it unsuitable for conversion,
Suharto went ahead with the project. Around $175 million
was spent on the scheme, half of which went towards
digging canals to drain the peat swamp, which was so deep
it subsided. After Suharto fell from power in 1998, the
project was abandoned, and no rice has ever been grown
on the land. Today, the Mega Rice Project area is a barren
wasteland, where the transmigrants are unable to grow rice
or enough crops to survive, where poverty is rife, where
orangutans and other wildlife are scarce and live in
fragmented patches of forest, and the area is prone to
illegal logging and frequent forest fires (Rautner et al,
2005).
©Feyton Inc 2018