The Gravest Unspoken Crisis

Explanation: This week (April 22nd, in paticular) we celebrate Earth Day!

Earth Day began in 1970 under the inspiration of American Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, to help promote environmental education and political activism to improve personal habitats of the use of our finite natural resources. Celebration of Earth Day -- sometimes extended to Earth Week -- has now spread globally, with many themes of planting trees, reducing waste, coordinating conservation, and many other "green" projects.

But still, in many countries, there is one, ever-growing, gravest unspoken crisis that underlies most, if not all, world problems of resource scarcity and environmental abuse.

The mega-urban crush and atmospheric pall that is downtown Beijing, China,
over 21 million people strong and growing.

It is the continued growth of human populations ... particularly in environments where key resources such as water and arable lands are scarce and becoming ever-more restrictive ... and where the lack of access to adequate sanitation, health care, and economic stability serves to promote social unrest and cultural conflict.

Ever-crowded village streets of the remote South Garo Hills
of the state of Meghalaya, northeast India.

Like many parts of the world, the population pyramid here is tilted toward
young age classes, portending even greater population growth to come.

This region is seeing increasing social unrest, especially
among young men.

This week, Ecology Picture of the Week celebrates Earth Day (and Earth Week) but with a reminder about the need to attend to this gravest unspoken crisis.

More people means more need to produce and transport
goods, services, food, and .. people ... eventually spiraling into
concerns for unchecked CO2 emission, air and water pollution,
and degradation of the quality of life.
(City street scenes in Guwahati, Assam, northeast India.)

The world population now stands at well over 7.2 billion people, and just the U.S. portion is increasing at the rate of one person every 15 seconds.

The increasingly densely-occupied city of Kinshasa,
Democratic Republic of the Congo, central Africa,
now with over 9.5 million inhabitants and a massive shanty town.

Over recent decades, many projections have been made on if, and at what level, the world population of people will stabilize. Recent projections warn about an overcrowded Earth yet to come with 11 billion people or more.

The ever-popular Avenue de Champs-Elysées in Paris, France.
The growth of such megacities -- generally defined as urban areas with
10 million or more people -- poses massive future challenges.

Railway "market" in southern Kenya, east Africa.
Competition for space, commerce, and livelihood only increases
with growing population densities.

So this year as we celebrate another Earth Day, let us remember that we live on the surface of a sphere with no edge, where all lines eventually cross, and where population density, health, and future sustainability are inextricably tied.

Information:
Pimentel, D. 2012. World overpopulation. Environment, Development and Sustainability 14(2):151-152.

EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week