Biology 2485B Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Resource Consumption, Exponential Growth, Resource Depletion
Document Summary
The human population: although the rate of global growth is slowing, we are still increasing in absolute numbers, today, more than 7. 3 billion of us inhabit the planet. India (1. 3b) is currently on course to surpass china (1. 4b) as the world"s most populous nation. Population is still growing, but more slowly: the world"s population has doubled since 1970 and is still growing by roughly 80 million people annually (approx. Population is one of several factors that affect the environment. Ipat model- one widely use formula gives us a handy way to know about factors that affect the environment. I- total impact on the environment: p- population, a- affluence, t- technology. Increased population intensifies impact on the environment as more individuals take up space, use natural resources, and generate waste. Thus, terms have been added to ipat for the effects of these.