world population reached today, November 15, 2022, 8000 million inhabitants. The growth rate of the world’s population is dizzying, as it is estimated that by 2050 they will add another 1 billion. While this on a boat soon only seems like good news, the truth is that it poses serious problems. Are there resources for everyone on Earth? And just as important: what will be the consequences of their exploitation for the planet?
We must not forget that we live in a time when climate change is already showing its face openly. Its consequences will get worse and worse if we don’t do anything to stop it, which is why scientists don’t stop studying what measures are most effective for slow down your progress. And among them is the modification of our consumer behavior. From food to the clothes we wear, it all means carbon emissions, as well as the release of pollutants, which can further complicate the situation. And, of course, if the world’s population increases, so will the carbon footprint, as it means more people consuming.
For this reason, it is important to have a clear idea of what measures can be taken both now and in the future to mitigate the consequences. Some countries have already introduced restrictions on the number of children in one family. In their case, they are trying to reduce the population of the world. But it is clear that this is already a lot, so in addition to affecting the source, we must also attack the consequences. Here are some ways to do it.
reuse everything you can
An increase in the world’s population means an increase in the demand for many products, for example clothes. And this presupposes water and energy consumption which together can be very dangerous.
On the one hand, it is estimated to be easy to make a cotton T-shirt over 2000 liters of water. And the figure goes up a lot more for some jeanswhich require more 11,000 liters. We need to know what this means from growing the cotton or the necessary materials before the clothes reach our homes.
On the other hand, we must also take into account the carbon footprint associated with the energy costs of growing materials, making clothes and transporting them to their destination. This may vary; but, approximately, I would go for a cotton T-shirt 3 to 4 kg of carbon dioxideor. With all this, in order to prevent climate change, it is important to consume with your head.
This means that we must think before buying clothes that we are not going to wear. It’s also important to reuse clothing rather than leaving it in landfills where it can’t be recycled. For this reason, we can give it a second life by using second-hand clothes and reuse more times or donate ours too.
This applies not only to clothing, but to almost any other product. If demand grows, grows and carbon footprint produce them, and that the more people there are in the world, the more dangerous it becomes.
However, it is also important to remember that the public can take limited action and that they state legislation the one that can bring about the best results.
Will there be food for everyone if the world population increases?
There is currently a huge imbalance in the distribution of food throughout the world. A report published by the UN in 2019 noted that approximately 820 million people in the world They don’t have enough food to feed themselves. However, our planet has 2 billion people who is suffering obesity or overweight. This is not always associated with an excess of food, far from it. But it is true that in many cases this is due to junk food and also that this contrasts with the position of those who they have almost nothing to put in their mouths.
Increasing world population may make these differences even more extreme. And, in turn, help increase global warming emissions from food production to try and meet all that demand.
Any food requires the consumption of water and energy for its production. Must prepare the soil for crops, water them and in some cases keep them on temperature and humidity conditions appropriate. you should also feed cattle, give water and prepare places for grazing or setting up farms. All this without counting transport one type of food or another.
But what is clear, according to studies in recent years, is that meat consumption has a much higher carbon footprint than vegetable consumption. For example, to get a kilogram of beef, they are thrown into the atmosphere. 99.48 kg of greenhouse gases. Instead, the figure is reduced to 2.09 kg of gases to obtain 1 kg tomatoes or 0.98 kg for so many peas.
With all this, it is recommended if you do not keep vegetarian dietleast reduce meat consumption. But not only that. It is also important to consume local produce. That is, it is useless to take only vegetables if they are brought from the other side of the world. The vegetables in the neighborhood are usually a good place to look for this type of product. And the fact is that, with a few exceptions, they tend to have seasonal fruits and vegetables and as local as possible.
This is something that has been recommended for a long time. However, as the world’s population grows, this will become increasingly important.
What can biotechnology do for us?
In a broad sense, biotechnology is the use of living organisms to obtain useful solutions for human actions. This goes from obtaining drugs to cleaning pollutants through the use of microorganisms capable of innings of them.
In this range of biotechnological applications, we also find feeding. Not only because it’s good to get traditional foods like bread, beer or wine. Also because with the help of biotechnology it is possible to obtain harvest is much more efficient.
For example, if you optimize space with the growth of the world population, it is interesting to build more apartment buildings and make cities grow upwards, something similar happens with crops. If more efficient installations are obtained which can produce more fruitless land will be needed to grow it, as there will be no need for so many plants.
You can also get a harvest that fix carbon more efficiently, so they can help reduce some of those emissions that contribute to the greenhouse effect. In addition, it is possible to improve adaptation to specific local conditions, contributing to a higher average yield. If we add to this the possibility of obtaining cheaper vegetables, with which it would be possible to feed that part of the planet that suffers from the light half of the balance in the distribution of food, we would have a lot of livestock. The world population has already reached 8,000 million inhabitants, we must take action before their number continues to grow. And for this, one of the first actions should be getting rid of the unjust fear that many people have for biotechnology.
Source: Hiper Textual
