How has the environment been affected due to population growth?
Humans have and will continue to depend on wildlife for survival to meet needs of food, clothing, medicine, and shelter. With the rapid population growth this can have devastating effects on the environment.
Threats to biodiversity have grown with the population. One of the biggest threats is habitat loss due to destruction, fragmentation, or degradation.
Overexploitation, the excessive use or removal of a species from their natural environment until the species no longer exists (extinction) or has a very small population (minimum variable population size) is also due to the rapid population growth.
(Carter- Edwards et al 567)
Threats to biodiversity have grown with the population. One of the biggest threats is habitat loss due to destruction, fragmentation, or degradation.
- When forests are cut down for agricultural developments in developing countries, all of the organisms that live in the forest lose their home while others migrate to nearby forests or other habitats. Those who cannot make it out of the destroyed forest die, and so do the reliant organisms on the dead organisms. Competition increases and more deaths result.
Overexploitation, the excessive use or removal of a species from their natural environment until the species no longer exists (extinction) or has a very small population (minimum variable population size) is also due to the rapid population growth.
(Carter- Edwards et al 567)