Essay topic Population and Resources

Population and Resources
Two of the most important factors in the development and advancement of human beings in an organised society is population and resources. Both population and resources are necessary for societies to prosper. Population and resources are deeply connected in that resources are necessary for population to survive and prosper. In the modern world though, population and resources are in need of a third factor called technology in order to ensure development.
Population refers to the number of people residing in a place over a long period of time. Population is not a static or predictable entity. It grows and develops at different pace in different places. Even though the human race began from a common ancestor, the difference in physical environment, genetic variation and climate enabled population growth in some areas more than it did in others. That is why population is not evenly distributed around the world. Some countries are densely populated while others are scarcely populated. In addition, the rate of population growth, ie, the speed at which population grows, differs from area to area and time to time.
Difference in the physical environment has also made different materials available to different populations. The physical materials made available to man in his surroundings refer to the resources he has. The greater the resources of a population, the better the population fairs. So, resources and population are deeply interrelated. However, resources alone cannot bring prosperity. Skilled use of resources through intelligence and machines, called technology, enable rapid development[footnoteRef:1]. [1: Pimentel, David, and Marcia Pimentel. "World population, food, natural resources, and survival." World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution 59, no. 3-4 (2003): 145-167.
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The resources available in nature are recyclable with some taking longer than others to recycle. Resources that take extraordinarily long are considered limited while those that recycle quickly are seen as unlimited resources. The earth as such has limited resources. Earlier on the population of earth world-over was also limited. So the relationship between population and resources was stable. However, with improvement in healthcare, population levels have started to increase while resources have not increased in the same...