Population
According to United Nations population has drastically changed compared mid-eighties and these days, rising from less than five billions up to seven billions in 2011 (World Population Prospect). In less than twenty five years population has increased for more than two billions. Demands for water, food and energy were also increased. Two billions people were requesting food, accommodation, transportation, health care and water. New locations are founded for extensive food production. New hydro and nuclear power plants were built to support growing energy consumption. For powering countless agricultural machines the oil was solution. It was cheap, easy to work with and also easy to storage and transport. It was called “black gold” for good reasons. Processing crude oil it is possible to get fertilizer and pesticides that are helping in crop production. With oil it was possible to support and lead great agricultural machinery and to provide enough food for all growing population.
According to Wilson “If everyone agreed to become vegetarian, leaving little or nothing for livestock, the present 1.4 billion hectares of arable land (3.5 billion acres) would support about 10 billion people.” And this calculation is based only on food consumption. High population density can bring many environmental problems. There are already some cities that are so crowded and polluted that people are living in constant smoke cloud, and that can lead to big health problems. Habitants will need to use some sort of transportation, which mean either very well public transportation or their personal vehicles. More vehicles mean more smoke and air pollution is easily generated. Increased number of vehicles is also leading to increased noise pollution and stressful life style because of constant rushes and traffic jams. Increased demand for electricity can lead to changing nature by building hydro or thermo power plants at spots that are not considered before. All of this people need to eat and drink and providing and distributing food can be also a big challenge.
Some governments concluded that is much cheaper to buy land abroad and produce their own food there than buying food on global market. There are different ways of obtaining foreigner land, buying it as governments, by sending agricultural companies who will produce and export food to motherland, or buying land and then renting it to domestic producers. Asian countries as South Korea and China are buying parcels mainly in Africa because of good price; it can be even hundred times cheaper than in Asia. According to Lester R. Brown “South Korea imports more than 70% of its grain.” Land is mainly used to produce simple, basic food as corn, wheat, rice, and soybeans and recently for biofuels. And yes, there is limited area available for food production. For now there is still plenty of space to occupy for food production, but what we will do after? One of solutions is change all crops and use them to feed people directly instead of meat production, as ineffective way to get food energy from plants. Efficient way of food consumption is possible to get by shortening the food chain, instead plants-animals-humans to plants-humans. Use of proper fertilizer and pesticides can provide more food for people. Building better infrastructure can save tons of food that is getting spoiled during transportation. Connecting villages, storage areas, production companies with better roads, railroads or with some new, better and faster way of transportation can be very fruitful. There are even proposals to try vertical agriculture instead of horizontal that is in use nowadays. Human beings are creative, very creative and intelligent but sometimes they just don not see the bigger picture.
Thoughts about society, where is it going and what is happening with our species is blank territory. Reason why we are unable to think in bigger scale is maybe hidden in our genes. People were used to live in small units, communities, or villages. Idea of big cities, with numerous habitants is something new to us. We are living such life but we are not really sure how and what consequences is that bringing. Or maybe because population is divided with artificial thing as borders and countries and in such environment it is hard to focus on bigger scale and look as unity. Humans are able to cross over many obstacles, or even make them bigger, deeper, or stronger.
For ones who made great contributions there is Nobel Prize. As it stated in his biography “The expression "the green revolution" is permanently linked to Norman Borlaug's name.” He has collaborated mostly with Mexican, Indian and Pakistan scientists on wheat improvement. He helped Mexico by developing new strain of wheat that was suitable for their environment. Decade later they were able to become self-sufficient in wheat production. India and Pakistan were now able to support their population grow with new type of wheat that Norman Borlaug’s and his team invented. He helped countries by giving them proper seed to feed their expanding nations.
People were able to emigrate from undeveloped areas to more developed areas. Main shift was from village to city. Rural population is still dropping while city population is constantly growing. Considering countries USA is stated as top destination for permanent immigration. Better health care, improved and mechanized agriculture were one of main reasons for increasing population. Better living conditions, raised standard, longer lifespan, better medical care are also reasons of increased population. Industrial revolution helped people by making them free from hard work in fields. Now they had chance to do something else, to invent other things, to increase they properties, to accumulate wealth to produce more food and provide better life for their families. Working in industry people were free from nature elements and not scared of losing crops and food because of floods, they feel safer than before. It is a paradox that bigger production needs more people and yet more people wants more things and it is ring without chance to get out.
More people on the planet will generate new technologies, new solutions, new ideas and concepts of living. Interesting solution is “Venus Project” where cities will be completely different that ones that we know. Cities will be in shape of pyramid or circular or even based in the middle of the ocean. It will be supported by geothermal energy, and machines will be used for building and constructing objects and responsible for all hard work. People will be free to work what they want, maybe be inventors, musicians, actors and engineers will be there to help them to build their dreams.
People are dreaming about having families and their own kids. It is deeply imprinted in genes, as a species it is expected to spread genes and left offspring so that blood line can go on. Talking and dealing with it can be very hard. From one side is a big pressure from society to have kids, and then there is ethics and moral about telling someone not to have kids. It is not easy topic and it need to be taken with great attention. For some people more children can mean better life, it will be more workers to support a family. Other reason is lack of contraceptive methods. Different countries have different problems.
In some places people are forced to travel for hours to reach fresh water. One of solution is desalinization, removing salt from sea water. Some countries as Algeria, Oman and United Arab Emirates use desalinization process to provide enough water for their habitants. Construction of such desalinization plant is very expensive, demanding and it is using enormous amount of energy. Maybe it is better to focus on improving water management and lowering water usage where that is applicable.
Population is constantly growing and that is fact. We need to be ready, to be able to deliver modern solutions, ideas and to work on providing help and support for all habitants.
Works Cited
"The Venus Project - Beyond Poverty, Politics and War." The Venus Project. Web. 13
Nov. 2014.
"Norman Borlaug - Biographical". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 13
Nov. 2014.
R. Brown, Lester. "Food, Fuel, and the Global Land Grab." World Future Society. 1
Jan. 2013. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.
"World Population Prospects, the 2012 Revision." World Population Prospects, the
2012 Revision. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.
Wilson, Edward O. The Future of Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002. Print.
