Population growth

With more people comes the need for more energy, more food, more water, more housing, more health care, more transport and other resources. This means that as our population increases, the planet’s resources deplete more rapidly. And the pressure on our natural resources increases.

Population growth has dramatic impacts on our ecosystems and communities. This is something South East Queensland needs to keep in mind given we have one of the fastest growing regions in Australia. By 2041, our population is expected to climb by more than 1.65 million new residents.

Some of the challenges associated with population growth include:

• Increased extraction of resources, including fossil fuels, minerals, timber and water.
• Increased air, water, land, noise and light pollution.
• Increased greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels for energy, contributing to climate change.
• Increased spread of disease between people living in densely populated areas.
• Increased vegetation loss due to land clearing for urban development and agriculture to meet demand for housing and food, leading to habitat loss, biodiversity loss and increased greenhouse gas emissions.
• Increased spread of invasive species from urbanisation, travel and increased importing and exporting of goods.
• Increased fishing and hunting, reducing populations of targeted species and disrupting ecosystem food webs.
• Increase in intensive farming, leading to poor soil quality, increased erosion, and increased agricultural runoff.
• Overextraction of freshwater to meet demands for drinking water, irrigation and industry, impacting aquatic ecosystems.
• Farming - As the population increases, more food is needed which could lead to more intensive farming, or deforestation to create new farmlands. These practices can lead to soil erosion or exhaustion. In addition, agricultural runoff can cause excessive plant growth that decreases the level of oxygen in waters and impacts significantly on water ecosystems.
• Eutrophication (excessive levels of nutrients in the water that causes a dense growth of plants) - It causes the heavy growth of plant life that consumes oxygen, causing the death of water wildlife. More than one source causes it such as sewage disposal, agriculture, food production, clothing, manufactured goods production, and more.
• Pollution – more people bring more pollution across the board: air, water, soil, and so on.
• Loss of freshwater - Population growth puts stress on freshwater supplies because the demand exceeds the supply of suitable water available.
• Increased impact of recreation and tourism activities.