Engis ( French pronunciation: [ɑ̃ʒi] ; Walloon : Indji ) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège , Belgium .
68-436: On 1 January 2006 Engis had a total population of 5,686. The total area is 27.74 km which gives a population density of 205 inhabitants per km. As of 2022, the population is estimated at approximately 6,269. The municipality consists of the following districts : Clermont-sous-Huy , Engis and Hermalle-sous-Huy . In 1829, in this village, Philippe-Charles Schmerling discovered the first Neanderthal ever, Engis 2 ,
136-712: A 2017 paper that since the Second World War, countries with higher population growth rates experienced the most social conflict. Some advocates have suggested societal problems such as hunger and mass unemployment are linked to overpopulation. According to anthropologist Jason Hickel , the global capitalist system creates pressures for population growth : "more people means more labour, cheaper labour, and more consumers." He and his colleagues have also demonstrated that capitalist elites throughout recent history have "used pro-natalist state policies to prevent women from practicing family planning" in order to grow
204-687: A combination of factors (including technological and social change) would allow global resources to meet this increased demand, avoiding global overpopulation. Additionally, some critics dismiss the idea of human overpopulation as a science myth connected to attempts to blame environmental issues on overpopulation, oversimplify complex social or economic systems, or place blame on developing countries and poor populations— reinscribing colonial or racist assumptions and leading to discriminatory policy. These critics often suggest overconsumption should be treated as an issue separate from population growth . World population has been rising continuously since
272-570: A consequence of overpopulation, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization , global food production exceeds increasing demand from global population growth. Food insecurity in some regions is attributable to the globally unequal distribution of food supplies. The notion that space is limited has been decried by skeptics, who point out that the Earth's population of roughly 6.8 billion people could comfortably be housed an area comparable in size to
340-504: A diminished quality of human life. Ecologist David Pimentel was one such proponent, saying "with the imbalance growing between population numbers and vital life sustaining resources, humans must actively conserve cropland, freshwater, energy, and biological resources. There is a need to develop renewable energy resources. Humans everywhere must understand that rapid population growth damages the Earth's resources and diminishes human well-being." Although food shortages have been warned as
408-452: A framework that ensures social integrity" to reduce the impact of "population growth on GHG emissions and biodiversity loss." In 2020, a quote from David Attenborough about how humans have "overrun the planet" was shared widely online and became his most popular comment on the internet. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Global Footprint Network have argued that the annual biocapacity of Earth has exceeded, as measured using
476-511: A global issue that some have linked to population growth. Colin Butler wrote in The Lancet in 1994 that overpopulation also has economic consequences for certain countries due to resource use. It was speculated by Aldous Huxley in 1958 that democracy is threatened by overpopulation, and could give rise to totalitarian style governments. Physics professor Albert Allen Bartlett at
544-399: A little less than the land area of Puerto Rico , 8,868 square kilometres (3,424 sq mi). Although the arithmetic density is the most common way of measuring population density, several other methods have been developed to provide alternative measures of population density over a specific area. Human overpopulation Human overpopulation (or human population overshoot )
612-512: A long history: Tertullian , a resident of the city of Carthage in the second century CE , criticized population at the time: "Our numbers are burdensome to the world, which can hardly support us... In very deed, pestilence, and famine, and wars, and earthquakes have to be regarded as a remedy for nations, as the means of pruning the luxuriance of the human race." Despite those concerns, scholars have not found historic societies that have collapsed because of overpopulation or overconsumption. By
680-620: A number of periods of growth since the dawn of civilization in the Holocene period, around 10,000 BCE. The beginning of civilization roughly coincides with the receding of glacial ice following the end of the Last Glacial Period . Farming allowed for the growth of populations in many parts of the world, including Europe, the Americas and China through the 1600s, occasionally disrupted by plagues or other crises. For example,
748-582: A population of six billion their biomass exceeded that of any other large land dwelling animal species that had ever existed by over 100 times. Inger Andersen , the executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme , stated in December 2022 as the human population reached a milestone of 8 billion and as delegates were meeting for the 2022 United Nations Biodiversity Conference , that "we need to understand that
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#1732782566837816-430: A valid concern, argue that increased levels of resource consumption and pollution exceed the environment's carrying capacity , leading to population overshoot . The population overshoot hypothesis is often discussed in relation to other population concerns such as population momentum , biodiversity loss , hunger and malnutrition , resource depletion , and the overall human impact on the environment . Critics of
884-442: A vehicle, forgoing air travel, and adopting a plant-based diet . However, even in countries that have both large population growth and major ecological problems, it is not necessarily true that curbing the population growth will make a major contribution towards resolving all environmental problems that can be solved simply with an environmentalist policy approach. Continued population growth and overconsumption, particularly by
952-664: Is "a primary driver behind many ecological and even societal threats." Ehlrich and other scientists at a conference in the Vatican on contemporary species extinction linked the issue to population growth in 2017, and advocated for human population control , which attracted controversy from the Catholic church . In 2019, a warning on climate change signed by 11,000 scientists from 153 nations said that human population growth adds 80 million humans annually, and "the world population must be stabilized—and, ideally, gradually reduced—within
1020-511: Is 53/km (140/sq mi). This includes all continental and island land area, including Antarctica . However, if Antarctica is excluded, then population density rises to over 58 per square kilometre (150/sq mi). The European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) has developed a suite of (open and free) data and tools named the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) to improve the science for policy support to
1088-454: Is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans , but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term. Population density is population divided by total land area , sometimes including seas and oceans, as appropriate. Low densities may cause an extinction vortex and further reduce fertility. This is called the Allee effect after
1156-455: Is around 8,000,000,000 and the Earth 's total area (including land and water) is 510,000,000 km (200,000,000 sq mi). Therefore, the worldwide human population density is approximately 8,000,000,000 ÷ 510,000,000 = 16/km (41/sq mi). However, if only the Earth's land area of 150,000,000 km (58,000,000 sq mi) is taken into account, then human population density
1224-796: Is its effect on the environment. Some scientists suggest that the overall human impact on the environment during the Great Acceleration , particularly due to human population size and growth, economic growth , overconsumption, pollution , and proliferation of technology, has pushed the planet into a new geological epoch known as the Anthropocene . Biomass of mammals on Earth Some studies and commentary link population growth with climate change . Critics have stated that population growth alone may have less influence on climate change than other factors, such as greenhouse gas emissions per capita . The global consumption of meat
1292-600: Is predicted that the population of sub-Saharan Africa will double by 2050. The Pew Research Center predicts that 50% of births in the year 2100 will be in Africa. As an example of uneven prospects, the UN projects that Nigeria will gain about 340 million people, about the present population of the US, to become the 3rd most populous country, and China will lose almost half of its population. Concerns about population size or density have
1360-511: Is projected to rise by as much as 76% by 2050 as the global population increases, with this projected to have further environmental impacts such as biodiversity loss and increased greenhouse gas emissions. A July 2017 study published in Environmental Research Letters argued that the most significant way individuals could mitigate their own carbon footprint is to have fewer children, followed by living without
1428-523: Is the idea that human populations may become too large to be sustained by their environment or resources in the long term. The topic is usually discussed in the context of world population , though it may concern individual nations, regions, and cities. Since 1804, the global living human population has increased from 1 billion to 8 billion due to medical advancements and improved agricultural productivity . Annual world population growth peaked at 2.1% in 1968 and has since dropped to 1.1%. According to
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#17327825668371496-896: The American Association for the Advancement of Science were concerned about population growth. In 2017, more than one-third of 50 Nobel prize-winning scientists surveyed by the Times Higher Education at the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings said that human overpopulation and environmental degradation are the two greatest threats facing mankind. In November that same year, the World Scientists' Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice , signed by 15,364 scientists from 184 countries, indicated that rapid human population growth
1564-478: The COVID-19 pandemic that epidemics and pandemics were made more likely by overpopulation, globalization , urbanization and encroachment into natural habitats. They both play a significant role impacting human populations, including widespread illness , death , and social disruption . While they can leave a temporary loss of population, it is followed by significant loss and suffering. These events are not
1632-654: The European Commission Directorate Generals and Services and as support to the United Nations system. Several of the most densely populated territories in the world are city-states , microstates and urban dependencies . In fact, 95% of the world's population is concentrated on just 10% of the world's land. These territories have a relatively small area and a high urbanization level, with an economically specialized city population drawing also on rural resources outside
1700-512: The United Nations , eight billion as of November 2022. Some researchers have analyzed this growth in population like other animal populations, human populations predictably grow and shrink according to their available food supply as per the Lotka–Volterra equations , including agronomist and insect ecologist David Pimentel , behavioral scientist Russell Hopfenberg, and anthropologist Virginia Abernethy . World population has gone through
1768-506: The United Nations Population Division issued in 2022 (see chart) projects that global population will peak around the year 2086 at about 10.4 billion, and then start a slow decline (the median line on the chart). As with earlier projections, this version assumes that the global average fertility rate will continue to fall, but even further from 2.5 births per woman during the 2015–2020 period to 1.8 by
1836-562: The University of Colorado Boulder warned in 2000 that overpopulation and the development of technology are the two major causes of the diminution of democracy. However, over the last 200 years of population growth, the actual level of personal freedom has increased rather than declined. John Harte has argued population growth is a factor in numerous social issues, including unemployment , overcrowding , bad governance and decaying infrastructure. Daron Acemoglu and others suggested in
1904-516: The appropriateness of definitions being used (and often devolve into social scientists and biologists simply talking past each other ). Annual world population growth peaked at 2.1% in 1968, has since dropped to 1.1%, and could drop even further to 0.1% by 2100. Based on this, the United Nations projects the world population, which is 7.8 billion as of 2020 , to level out around 2100 at 10.9 billion with other models proposing similar stabilization before or after 2100. Some experts believe that
1972-454: The ecological footprint . In 2006, WWF's Living Planet Report stated that in order for all humans to live with the current consumption patterns of Europeans, we would be spending three times more than what the planet can renew. According to these calculations, humanity as a whole was using by 2006 40% more than what Earth can regenerate. Another study by the WWF in 2014 found that it would take
2040-561: The engineering of substitute goods and technology that better conserves and more efficiently uses natural resources, produces greater agricultural output with less land and less water, and addresses human impacts on the environment due to there being greater numbers of scientists, engineers, and inventors and subsequent generations of scientists overturning scientific paradigms maintained by previous generations of scientists . Instead, social scientists argue that disputes between themselves and biologists about human overpopulation are over
2108-458: The global south where most population growth happens. Modern proponents of the concept have suggested that overpopulation, population growth and overconsumption are interdependent and collectively are the primary drivers of human-caused environmental problems such as climate change and biodiversity loss . Many scientists have expressed concern about population growth, and argue that creating sustainable societies will require decreasing
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2176-469: The 20th century did not materialize. In The Population Bomb , Ehrlich stated, "In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now," with later editions changing to "in the 1980s". Despite admitting some of his earlier predictions did not come to pass, Ehrlich continues to advocate that overpopulation is a major issue. As the profile of environmental issues facing humanity increased during
2244-551: The Black Death is thought to have reduced the world's population, then at an estimated 450 million in 1350, to between 350 and 375 million by 1400. After the start of the Industrial Revolution , during the 18th century, the rate of population growth began to increase. By the end of the century, the world's population was estimated at just under 1 billion. At the turn of the 20th century, the world's population
2312-998: The area, illustrating the difference between high population density and overpopulation . Deserts have very limited potential for growing crops as there is not enough rain to support them. Thus, their population density is generally low. However, some cities in the Middle East, such as Dubai , have been increasing in population and infrastructure growth at a fast pace. Cities with high population densities are, by some, considered to be overpopulated, though this will depend on factors like quality of housing and infrastructure and access to resources. Very densely populated cities are mostly in Asia (particularly Southeast Asia ); Africa's Lagos , Kinshasa , and Cairo ; South America's Bogotá , Lima , and São Paulo ; and Mexico City and Saint Petersburg also fall into this category. City population and especially area are, however, heavily dependent on
2380-528: The belief note that human population growth is decreasing and the population will likely peak, and possibly even begin to decrease, before the end of the century. They argue the concerns surrounding population growth are overstated, noting that quickly declining birth rates and technological innovation make it possible to sustain projected population sizes. Other critics claim that overpopulation concerns ignore more pressing issues, like poverty or overconsumption , are motivated by racism, or place an undue burden on
2448-401: The coming decades, and advocated for policies to curb it. The Club of Rome published the influential report The Limits to Growth in 1972, which used computer modeling to similarly argue that continued population growth trends would lead to global system collapse. The idea of overpopulation was also a topic of some works of English-language science fiction and dystopian fiction during
2516-777: The current global population. Advocates have suggested implementation of population planning strategies to reach a proposed sustainable population . Overpopulation hypotheses are controversial, with many demographers and environmentalists disputing the core premise that the world cannot sustain the current trajectory of human population. Additionally, many economists and historians have noted that sustained shortages and famines have historically been caused by war, price controls , political instability, and repressive political regimes (often employing central planning ) rather than overpopulation, and that population growth historically has led to greater technological development and advancement of scientific knowledge that has enabled
2584-637: The damaged skull of a young child. This was before the 1856 discovery of the Neanderthal type specimen in the Neander Valley . Its importance was not recognised until 1936. In late 1930 and early 1931, several thousand cases of acute pulmonary attacks occurred in the Meuse valley, centered on Engis, and 60 people died. A commission of inquiry set up by the Belgian government concluded that the cause
2652-547: The definition of "urban area" used: densities are almost invariably higher for the center only than when suburban settlements and intervening rural areas are included, as in the agglomeration or metropolitan area (the latter sometimes including neighboring cities). In comparison, based on a world population of 8 billion, the world's inhabitants, if conceptualized as a loose crowd occupying just under 1 m (10 sq ft) per person (cf. Jacobs Method ), would occupy an area of 8,000 square kilometres (3,100 sq mi)
2720-493: The early 19th century, intellectuals such as Thomas Malthus predicted that humankind would outgrow its available resources because a finite amount of land would be incapable of supporting a population with limitless potential for increase. During the 19th century, Malthus' work, particularly An Essay on the Principle of Population , was often interpreted in a way that blamed the poor alone for their condition and helping them
2788-478: The end of 2022. by UN in 2017 Population projections are attempts to show how the human population might change in the future. These projections help to forecast the population's impact on this planet and humanity's future well-being. Models of population growth take trends in human development , and apply projections into the future to understand how they will affect fertility and mortality , and thus population growth . The most recent report from
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2856-568: The end of the Black Death , around the year 1350. The fastest doubling of the world population happened between 1950 and 1986: a doubling from 2.5 to 5 billion people in 37 years, mainly due to medical advancements and increases in agricultural productivity . Due to its impact on the human ability to grow food, the Haber process enabled the global population to increase from 1.6 billion in 1900 to 7.7 billion by November 2018 and, according to
2924-413: The end of the 20th and the early 21st centuries, some have looked to population growth as a root cause. In the 2000s, E. O. Wilson and Ron Nielsen discussed overpopulation as a threat to the quality of human life. In 2011, Pentti Linkola argued that human overpopulation represents a threat to Earth's biosphere . A 2015 survey from Pew Research Center reports that 82% of scientists associated with
2992-513: The environment and accompanying increase in resource consumption threatens the world's ecosystems and the survival of human civilization. The InterAcademy Panel Statement on Population Growth , which was ratified by 58 member national academies in 1994, states that "unprecedented" population growth aggravates many environmental problems, including rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide , global warming , and pollution. Indeed, some analysts claim that overpopulation's most serious impact
3060-595: The equivalent of 1.5 Earths of bio-capacity to meet humanity's current levels of consumption. However, Roger Martin of Population Matters states the view: "the poor want to get rich, and I want them to get rich," with a later addition, "of course we have to change consumption habits,... but we've also got to stabilize our numbers". Critics have questioned the simplifications and statistical methods used in calculating ecological footprints. Therefore, Global Footprint Network and its partner organizations have engaged with national governments and international agencies to test
3128-474: The global human population," sustainability can be achieved more rapidly with a short term focus on technological and social innovations, along with reducing consumption rates, while treating population planning as a long-term goal. However, most scientists believe that achieving genuine sustainability is a long-term project, and that addressing population and consumption levels are both essential to achieving it. In 1992, more than 1700 scientists from around
3196-430: The growth of the human population caused encroachment in wild habitats which have led to their destruction, "posing a potential threat to biodiversity components". Some scientists and environmentalists, including Jared Diamond , E. O. Wilson , Jane Goodall and David Attenborough , contend that population growth is devastating to biodiversity . Wilson for example, has expressed concern when Homo sapiens reached
3264-519: The latter part of the 1960s. The United Nations held the first of three World Population Conferences in 1974. Human population and family planning policies were adopted by some nations in the late 20th century in an effort to curb population growth, including in China and India . Albert Allen Bartlett gave more than 1,742 lectures on the threat of exponential population growth starting in 1969. However, many predictions of overpopulation during
3332-606: The more people there are, the more we put the Earth under heavy pressure. As far as biodiversity is concerned, we are at war with [the rest of] nature." Human overpopulation and continued population growth are also considered by some, including animal rights attorney Doris Lin and philosopher Steven Best , to be an animal rights issue, as more human activity means the destruction of animal habitats and more direct killing of animals. Some commentary has attributed depletion of non-renewable resources , such as land , food and water , to overpopulation and suggested it could lead to
3400-409: The most common estimate was 8 billion. Advocates of reduced population often put forward much lower numbers. Paul R. Ehrlich stated in 2018 that the optimum population is between 1.5 and 2 billion. In 2022 Ehrlich and other contributors to the "Scientists' warning on population", including Eileen Crist, William J. Ripple , William E. Rees and Christopher Wolf, stated that environmental analysts put
3468-441: The most recent United Nations' projections , the global human population is expected to reach 9.7 billion in 2050 and would peak at around 10.4 billion people in the 2080s, before decreasing, noting that fertility rates are falling worldwide. Other models agree that the population will stabilize before or after 2100. Conversely, other researchers have found that national birth registries data from 2022 and 2023 that cover half
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#17327825668373536-400: The process of reducing the total numbers. They suggested several possible approaches, including: There is good evidence from many parts of the world that when women and couples have the freedom to choose how many children to have, they tend to have smaller families. Some scientists, such as Corey Bradshaw and Barry Brook, suggest that, given the "inexorable demographic momentum of
3604-552: The results—reviews have been produced by France, Germany, the European Commission, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Japan and the United Arab Emirates . Some point out that a more refined method of assessing Ecological Footprint is to designate sustainable versus non-sustainable categories of consumption. Attempts have been made to estimate the world's carrying capacity for humans; the maximum population
3672-443: The scientist who identified it. Examples of the causes of reduced fertility in low population densities are: Population density is the number of people per unit of area, usually transcribed as "per square kilometer" or square mile, and which may include or exclude, for example, areas of water or glaciers. Commonly this is calculated for a county , city , country , another territory or the entire world . The world's population
3740-453: The size of their workforce. Hickel has however argued that the cause of negative environmental impacts is resource extraction by wealthy countries. He concludes that "we should not ignore the relationship between population growth and ecology, but we must not treat these as operating in a social and political vacuum." A 2021 article in Ethics, Medicine and Public Health argued in light of
3808-408: The sole reason for overpopulation, but lack of access to family planning and reproductive contraptions, poverty and resource depletion . Several strategies have been proposed to mitigate overpopulation. Several scientists (including Paul Ehrlich , Gretchen Daily and Tim Flannery ) proposed that humanity should work at stabilizing its absolute numbers, as a starting point towards beginning
3876-495: The state of Texas in the United States (about 269,000 square miles or 696,706.80 square kilometres). Critics and agricultural experts suggest changes to policies relating to land use or agriculture to make them more efficient would be more likely to resolve land issues and pressures on the environment than focusing on reducing population alone. Water scarcity , which threatens agricultural productivity, represents
3944-452: The sustainable level of human population at between 2 and 4 billion people. Geographer Chris Tucker estimates that 3 billion is a sustainable number. Although proponents of human overpopulation have expressed concern that growing population will lead to an increase in global poverty and infant mortality , both indicators have declined over the last 200 years of population growth. A number of scientists have argued that human impacts on
4012-429: The wealthy, have been posited as key drivers of biodiversity loss and contemporary species extinction , with some researchers and environmentalists specifically suggesting this indicates a human overpopulation scenario. The Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services , released by IPBES in 2019, states that human population growth is a factor in biodiversity loss. IGI Global has uncovered
4080-520: The world can host. A 2004 meta-analysis of 69 such studies from 1694 until 2001 found the average predicted maximum number of people the Earth would ever have was 7.7 billion people, with lower and upper meta-bounds at 0.65 and 98 billion people, respectively. They conclude: "recent predictions of stabilized world population levels for 2050 exceed several of our meta-estimates of a world population limit". A 2012 United Nations report summarized 65 different estimated maximum sustainable population sizes and
4148-503: The world signed onto a " World Scientists' Warning to Humanity ," including a majority of the living Nobel prize-winners in the sciences. "The earth is finite," they wrote. "Its ability to absorb wastes and destructive effluent is finite. Its ability to provide food and energy is finite. Its ability to provide for growing numbers of people is finite. And we are fast approaching many of the earth's limits." The warning noted: Pressures resulting from unrestrained population growth put demands on
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#17327825668374216-492: The world's population indicate that the 2022 UN projections overestimated fertility rates by 10 to 20% and are already outdated, that the global fertility rate has possibly already fallen below the sub-replacement fertility level for the first time in human history, and that the global population will peak at approximately 9.5 billion by 2061. The 2024 UN projections report estimated that world population would peak at 10.29 billion in 2084 and decline to 10.18 billion by 2100, which
4284-440: The year 2100. However, other estimates predict additional downward pressure on fertility (such as more education and family planning) which could result in peak population during the 2060–2070 period rather than later. According to the UN, of the predicted growth in world population between 2020 and 2050, all of that change will come from less developed countries , and more than half will come from just 8 African countries. It
4352-515: Was 6% lower than the UN had estimated in 2014. Early discussions of overpopulation in English were spurred by the work of Thomas Malthus . Discussions of overpopulation follow a similar line of inquiry as Malthusianism and its Malthusian catastrophe , a hypothetical event where population exceeds agricultural capacity, causing famine or war over resources, resulting in poverty and depopulation. More recent discussion of overpopulation
4420-447: Was poisonous waste gases, primarily sulfur dioxide , emitted by the many factories in the valley and the furnaces used by the population, in conjunction with unusual climatic conditions coupled with the unique topographic characteristics of the area. Others have claimed that the deaths were the result acute fluorine intoxication. Population density Population density (in agriculture : standing stock or plant density )
4488-474: Was popularized by Paul Ehrlich in his 1968 book The Population Bomb and subsequent writings. Ehrlich described overpopulation as a function of overconsumption , arguing that overpopulation should be defined by a population being unable to sustain itself without depleting non-renewable resources . The belief that global population levels will become too large to sustain is a point of contentious debate. Those who believe global human overpopulation to be
4556-704: Was roughly 1.6 billion. By 1940, this figure had increased to 2.3 billion. Even more dramatic growth beginning in 1950 (above 1.8% per year) coincided with greatly increased food production as a result of the industrialization of agriculture brought about by the Green Revolution . The rate of human population growth peaked in 1964, at about 2.1% per year. Recent additions of a billion humans happened very quickly: 33 years to reach three billion in 1960, 14 years for four billion in 1974, 13 years for five billion in 1987, 12 years for six billion in 1999, 11 years for seven billion in 2010, and 12 years for 8 billion toward
4624-819: Was said to worsen conditions in the long run. This resulted, for example, in the English poor laws of 1834 and a hesitating response to the Irish Great Famine of 1845–52. The first World Population Conference was held in 1927 in Geneva, organized by the League of Nations and Margaret Sanger . Paul R. Ehrlich 's book The Population Bomb became a bestseller upon its release in 1968 and created renewed interest in overpopulation. The book predicted population growth would lead to famine , societal collapse , and other social, environmental and economic strife in
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