Spring Break
Continual increase in population affecting global climate crisis
Chloe Wittry
Issue date: 3/13/09 Section: News
The continual and rapid growth of the world's population is impacting infrastructures, causing more inequality in the distribution of wealth and increasing the number of deaths per year due to natural disasters.
Lori Peek, a sociology professor, presented to students, faculty and community members Thursday night in on how nature is being affected by rapid population growth.
"How many people are we asking our climate to sustain?" Peek asked the Lory Student Center North Ballroom crowd.
According to Peek's presentation, most of the world's population growth has been experienced in lesser-developed countries that can't support its citizens financially or lessen those people's effects on the environment.
"The wealth inequalities in all nations are growing as the populations increase, with 85 percent of the wealth usually being distributed to the top 10 percent of the population," Peek said.
She emphasized that wealth provides safety and access to political structures and major institutions.
"One sixth of the world's population live in shanty towns, which have no water, no electricity and no protection from disasters," Peek said.
According to the presentation, it is estimated that by 2012 the world's population will have increased to seven billion people, dramatically increasing the climate crisis.
With the increasing population, people are continually extracting more of the world's resources to try to maintain standards of living -- with the world's top 20 percent of people consuming three quarters of all private and public goods.
English professor John Calderazzo, who coordinated the event, said, "It's too easy to think that the human world and the natural world are separate. All day we sit at our TV screens, computer screens or on our phones and these things promote our inaction in taking steps toward helping this global climate problem."
Peek highlighted that due to the increasing population, infrastructures are falling apart and killing thousands of people. Also, thousands of new buildings are being developed in unsustainable areas.
Lori Peek, a sociology professor, presented to students, faculty and community members Thursday night in on how nature is being affected by rapid population growth.
"How many people are we asking our climate to sustain?" Peek asked the Lory Student Center North Ballroom crowd.
According to Peek's presentation, most of the world's population growth has been experienced in lesser-developed countries that can't support its citizens financially or lessen those people's effects on the environment.
"The wealth inequalities in all nations are growing as the populations increase, with 85 percent of the wealth usually being distributed to the top 10 percent of the population," Peek said.
She emphasized that wealth provides safety and access to political structures and major institutions.
"One sixth of the world's population live in shanty towns, which have no water, no electricity and no protection from disasters," Peek said.
According to the presentation, it is estimated that by 2012 the world's population will have increased to seven billion people, dramatically increasing the climate crisis.
With the increasing population, people are continually extracting more of the world's resources to try to maintain standards of living -- with the world's top 20 percent of people consuming three quarters of all private and public goods.
English professor John Calderazzo, who coordinated the event, said, "It's too easy to think that the human world and the natural world are separate. All day we sit at our TV screens, computer screens or on our phones and these things promote our inaction in taking steps toward helping this global climate problem."
Peek highlighted that due to the increasing population, infrastructures are falling apart and killing thousands of people. Also, thousands of new buildings are being developed in unsustainable areas.
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