Introduction
The population of the world has continued to increase significantly over time. As of 2015, the total number of people living in the world is much greater than seven billion. Markedly, just less than two centuries ago, the total population of the world was less than a billion. The rates of poverty, mortality, and global crises were very high which impinged on the growth of population. However, beginning at the turn of the eighteenth century, the world population has increased significantly. Even more alarming has been the growth of the population during 1900-2000 (Gao, 2015). It has seen the population triple in size from about one and a half billion to more than six billion.
Research Background
Global Environmental Challenges of a Huge Population
Environmental Issues
Global Warming
Impacts on the Environment
Global warming has significantly changed weather patterns. There are more intense hot and dry seasons and significantly cold and sporadic cold seasons. Scorching seasons continue to cause other challenges such as wildfires. Similarly, the steady increase in world temperatures has caused the continued melting of glaciers and a rise in the sea level. Glaciers continue to melt, and the water drains to the sea causing a rising sea level. Scientific research suggests that if the trend continues, there will be no glaciers by 2070 (Gao, 2015).
Impacts on Human Health
Global warming has numerous effects on the health of individuals. Firstly, it causes an increase in the number of infectious diseases, more respiratory illnesses, and even increased the number of deaths due to heat waves.
Dwindling Sources of Energy
Oil and Gas
Currently, oil and gas are the core sources of energy across the globe. However, continued mining over the years has significantly reduced the deposits and in a few years, there will be little oil and gas available to fuel the world. It will affect not only the manufacturing sector but also other sectors of the global economy.
Wood
It is especially important in less developed nations where charcoal and wood are core sources of energy (Ahlburg, Kelley & Mason, 2013). However, the increasing population has increased the level of deforestation, which has significantly reduced the forest cover in the world. The latter has had tremendous impacts not only on the weather patterns but also on the habitability of various areas across the globe.
Social Challenges
Overcrowding
It refers to the increasing density of populations in various cities and primarily urban areas across the globe (Ehrlich & Holdren, 1971).
Physical and Behaviour Change
One of the significant effects of overcrowding is the fact that people's behaviour changes drastically. The little space in urban areas causes physical changes as well as behaviour changes. People become more violent, more accepting of lower standards, and generally, their lives change negatively (Ehrlich & Holdren, 1971).
Poor Living Standards
As mentioned, overcrowding limits the extent of social amenities available to individual members of society. Hence, people continue to suffer poor living standards. It is part of the reason there have been various social ills such as obesity, negative culture, and a general tendency towards social inequality (Ahlburg, Kelley, & Mason, 2013).
Conflict and War
The continued rise in the global population has increased the level of conflict in the world. The reason is that resources continue to dwindle, cultures continue to clash, ideologies differ more intensely, and the general feeling of suspicion and apprehensiveness continues to fuel the need for countries to accumulate weapons of mass obliteration of their neighbours. All these issues combined cause world conflicts (Mora, 2014).
Personal Freedoms
Restrictions on Travel
The increase in population has led to the need to control travel across the globe (Mora, 2014). The reason is that some developed nations monitor the entrance by citizens from other countries in a bid to protect their ways of life and standards of living from the impacts of growing populations.
Limit on What People Can Do With Their Plans
As mentioned, overcrowding has increased the closeness of individuals to their neighbours. It has caused the need to restrict the activities of individuals to protect the rights of their neighbours (Mora, 2014). It is the reason various nations have laws for noise control (people cannot even play loud music in their houses), laws for industrialisation in certain areas, development laws that control the type of structures to erect etcetera.
Solutions
Empower Women
Women are an essential component of the process of population growth. As a result, empowering them with knowledge and resources can significantly help in controlling the further growth of the populations.
Empowering Through Knowledge
A good way to empower them is by enlightening them about the effects of uncontrolled birth. Empowering them with the relevant information can significantly reduce the rate of growth of the population. In the end, it can curb the challenges that result from a massive global population.
Economic Empowerment
It involves providing women with avenues of lifting themselves out of poverty. It means enabling them to access cheap loans, financial management knowledge, revolving funds, table banking among other avenues that increase their financial stability (Lomborg, 2013).
Creating Awareness
The crucial issue when it comes to population growth is the need to sensitize the members of the global society about the challenges resulting from the uncontrolled rise in world population. When people understand the adverse effects, they can be more efficient in adopting more sustainable practices to help reduce the challenges.
Cultural Change
Economic Perspective of Culture Change
It involves adopting measures to change the culture towards one that considers the financial abilities before the decision to have children (Lomborg, 2013). Active measures to change the culture make it very easy to curb the high rate of global population growth.
Social-Cultural Perspective
In some cultures, the idea of having many children appears as a prestigious position for the family. It is especially so in India and Africa. However, changing the culture towards one that values the quality of life rather than the number of children can significantly help to reduce the rate of population growth (Lomborg, 2013).
Research Justification
The United Arab Emirates has been one of the fastest growing nations in the Gulf regions. Despite the steady population growth following breakneck development in the country, more so in its major cities including Dubai, and its attainment of the developed nation status, there is still potential for sustained growth of the population. According to Alderman (2010), a report by the United Nations indicates that the urban population of the UAE will expand to 7.9 million by 2020. In essence, the UAE urban regions will continue to experience a sustained growth of about 2.3% per annum (Everington, 2013).
However, the rapid growth f the UAE’s population, particularly due to increased imported labour force over the period of growth as well as local population expansion have increased the number of challenges associated with the enlargement of the community. Such include challenges related to the impact of on the environment as well as the management of resources.
Notably, UAE cities such as Dubai have experienced significant challenges. Firstly Dubai has experienced challenges related to the management of the sewer systems. The reason is that populations have grown faster than the development of newer systems. Hence, it has led to the sewer systems operating beyond their proper capacities. At times, reports indicate that the sewerage flows freely to the beaches causing fears of water sanitation especially given theta the same water is undergoes desalination to provide fresh water (Alderman, 2010). Further, there has been the challenge of managing freshwater supplies. The region relies on water desalination plants to provide fresh water. However, with a population growing very fast, the close to four billion bottles of fresh water produced daily can only supply the city for only two days maximum. Hence, there arises the need to expand production and storage capacities. Similarly, the city faces the challenges of dwindling resources.
Notably, Dubai is among the world cities that lead an extremely expensive lifestyle. However, maintaining this lifestyle requires a tremendous amount of electricity power to fuel the manufacturing industry, the desalination plants, the sewer systems and other resources. It has prompted the UAE to begin planning for a nuclear power plant to supplement energy resources (Alderman, 2010).
Such challenges loosely point to the effects of high population growth not only on the environment but also on resource availability. Therefore, it justifies the need to undertake the present research to understand the deeper and more widespread effects of population growth in the UAE and the possible solutions that the nation might require ensuring controlled population growth especially given the need to remain under the status of a developed country in the long term.
References
Ahlburg, D., Kelley, A., & Mason, K. (2013). The impact of population growth on well-being in developing countries. Berlin: Springer Science & Business Media.
ALDERMAN, L. (2010). Dubai Struggles With Environmental Problems After Growth. Nytimes.com. Retrieved 30 January 2016, from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/business/energy-environment/28dubai.html?_r=0
Ehrlich, P., & Holdren, J. (1971). Impact of Population Growth. Science, 171(3977), 1212-1217.
Everington, J. (2013). UAE urban population will grow to 7.9m by 2020, says United Nations. The National. Retrieved 30 January 2016, from http://www.thenational.ae/business/industry-insights/economics/20130916/uae-urban-population-will-grow-to-7-9m-by-2020-says-united-nations
Gao, G. (2015). Scientists more worried than public about world’s growing population. Pew Research Center. Retrieved 25 January 2016, from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/06/08/scientists-more-worried-than-public-about-worlds-growing-population/
Lomborg, B. (2013). Global problems, smart solutions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mora, C. (2014). Revisiting the Environmental and Socioeconomic Effects of Population Growth: a Fundamental but Fading Issue in Modern Scientific, Public, and Political Circles. Ecology and Society, 19(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/es-06320-190138
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