Eye Opener: Summary of Reading #2: Perceiving the Population Bomb

Summary:
The reading Perceiving the Population Bomb goes back to 1968 when Paul Ehrlich warned the world of the effects of a population explosion or that a population problem was occurring through this book, “The Population Bomb.” Over the years demographers have come to understand that his warning was very real and that the effects are surfacing. In 1993 the biophysical scientist, Vaclav Smil wrote: “We have at least started to realize the enormity of environmental transformation which is imperiling the survival of modern civilization.” Smil identified a range of critical changes taking place in the Earth’s condition, and noted that “these changes can be ordered into three broad categories: declining availability of critical natural resources and services; changing composition of the atmosphere; and the loss of biodiversity.”

Some important facts that Smil identified are listed as follows:
According to the reading, “In 1990, the world was emitting, from the burning of fossil fuels and cement production, about 4.2 tons of carbon dioxide per person, indicating an energy use of about 64 GJ (gigajoules) per person per year.” Vaclac Smil states that this is a reasonable lower limit for the average energy use because infant mortality drops suddenly as per capita energy use rises to 50 GJ per year.

In order to stabilize the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel would have to be reduced by at least 60 percent from their 1990 level of 22.3 billion tons.

“The maximum population which the Earth can accommodate, while allowing the aforesaid carbon dioxide emission of 4.2 tons per person per year, is 8.9/4.2=2.1billion people.” The world population was 2.1 billion in 1940, so according to the reading that was when the population Bomb when off. Since then we have gradually been experiencing collateral damage in the form of atmospheric disturbance with its corollaries, such as melting glaciers, droughts, floods, and increasing occurrence of El Nino.

By the 1990s there was only about one-third of the continental surface left over for the use of other life forms.

Lastly, the fact that that world is currently using about four cubic kilometers of crude oil a year, and has used about half of its conventional oil and close to half of its natural gas demonstrates we are running low on availability of critical natural resources and services.

Overall, the article places a large concern on the problem of the population bomb. Listed below are two articles I found online. The first one stresses the problem of the Population Bomb and the second one denies it all together.

Overpopulation could be people, planet problem
Overpopulation: Not a Problem


Discussion Question:
What do you think? Is the population bomb a problem we should be worrying about? Or is it all just made up? If you think it’s a problem what steps could we take to improve it? Let me know what you think! =)