As we approach the end of the first decade of the 21st century, the population of the world lingers just below 6.8 billion people. Since the last 200 years we have been experiencing an explosive growth in the earth's populace. This can be attributable to a number of factors such as the agricultural revolution, industrial revolution and advances in health care. The majority of the population growth has been observed to occur in developing countries (Global 77, 205). According to the U.N. world population is expected to surpass nine billion by 2050 (Global 93). With increasing population comes a wide array of problems such as food shortages, economic disparities, There have been a number of efforts made to address over population such as China's one child only policy and the literacy of females. The population issues for the world in 2050 will be related to environmental degradation and shift in population demographic profiles.
Current World Population Growth Rate
Lynn Margulis
The Global Connections logoInitially based on the expansionist view, people selfishly believed that the environment was at their disposal and did not worry about the repercussions. The basic idea of the expansionist world view was one of continuous collection and growth of one's material wealth into a seemingly boundless future. This world view held ground throughout the industrial revolution through globalization and capitalist expansionism. Recently there has been growing concern about environmental degradation and its ripple effects for humanity. The ecological worldview links to the Gaia hypothesis, which states that our planet functions as a single organism that maintains conditions necessary for its survival (Global 40). Ecological worldview mentions that all forms of life is interlinked and interconnected. Also earth's resources are seen as non-renewable and action must be taken to safeguard the ecological web. Environmental degradation can take many different forms such as deforestation, loss of biodiversity, salinization of...