Biodiversity, Extinction, and Humanity’s Future: The Ecological and Evolutionary Consequences of Human Population and Resource Use

Jeffrey Yule,Robert Fournier,Patrick Hindmarsh

doi:10.3390/h2020147

Abstract

Human actions have altered global environments and reduced biodiversity by causing extinctions and reducing the population sizes of surviving species. Increasing human population size and per capita resource use will continue to have direct and indirect ecological and evolutionary consequences. As a result, future generations will inhabit a planet with significantly less wildlife, reduced evolutionary potential, diminished ecosystem services, and an increased likelihood of contracting infectious disease. The magnitude of these effects will depend on the rate at which global human population and/or per capita resource use decline to sustainable levels and the degree to which population reductions result from increased death rates rather than decreased birth rates.

Highlights

Homo sapiens sapiens has either already arrived or will shortly arrive at a fork in the road, and the route we choose will determine what sort of world our species will occupy
We suspect that global human population will likely stabilize below the current
While some argue the current scope and effect of atmospheric alteration, if per capita resource use remains constant with a growing human N, the potential damage to existing ecological communities and human populations could range from locally problematic to globally catastrophic

Summary

Introduction

Homo sapiens sapiens has either already arrived or will shortly arrive at a fork in the road, and the route we choose will determine what sort of world our species will occupy. While some argue the current scope and effect of atmospheric alteration, if per capita resource use remains constant with a growing human N, the potential damage to existing ecological communities and human populations could range from locally problematic to globally catastrophic.

Results

Conclusion