There is a gust of wind and old pamphlets rise up in the sky and take flight. If any living thing was there to see the Earth it would have gasp in horror. The very fabrication of what was once Earth has dissipated into nothing more than a rock floating around space, serving no purpose. There no longer is any noise of laughter, no child crying for its mother, just the occasional moan of the Earths crust shifting. Humans have murdered themselves and every other living thing went down with them. Its inevitable that there will no longer be any sustainable life on Earth. But, that end can be prolonged. Throughout the ages, mankind has been growing at an impressive rate. The more Homo sapiens grow and prosper the more they have to consume and create to keep up the growth, this in turn, creates a problem. The problem is that the 7 billion people that are one this planet disrupt the balance between humans and the environment. As a species, we have and are destroying other living organisms until they become extinct. Zero population growth is when there are enough births to replace the existing population, or in other words, it is when the number of deaths equal the number of births. The problem now is that there is too many people for Earth to support without serious damage. As a species, humans are increasing the already enormous population, and instead, humans should be decreasing until they reach a number that can have a balance with the environment; then try to obtain a zero population growth. How do we get there I do not know? But, what I do know is our population is a problem and it is affecting us, as well as the environment, in very negative ways. Population Population is the biggest problem when it comes the health of people and the environment, there are just too many people for the Earth to support. According to Bob Hughes, in about 5 minutes, 8 million people are added to the Earth to the already 7.5 billion people. By this statistic that would mean that in one hour 96 million people are added to the planet. Certain factors in America as well as some other wealthy countries have also allowed for such an increase in population, such as the government supporting families (family plans and health care), better medication, and more economic opportunities (Hughes, Bob, p. 6). This wouldnt be such an issue except for the fact that if the population continues to grow at the rate it is then such government programs would only be aiding the growth; which would in turn be aiding the extinction of humans and all other living things. Besides the government there are many other reason why the population is increasing. One is that the fertility levels at the moment are above where they need to be, they are at 2.1 when they should be a 1 (Bongaarts, John, Human population growth and the demographic transition). The mortality rate (death rate) continues to decrease do to medical discoveries and improvements (Bongaarts, John, Human population growth and the demographic transition). Thus people are living longer and creating more children which adds to the population. The time to doubling of population throughout the ages has become closer and closer. About two thousand years ago there were roughly 300 million people on Earth about a thousand years after that the population only increased 10 million people (PBS, Human numbers throughout time). In 1987 there were 5 billion people on earth and only 12 years later there were six billion people on Earth (PBS, Human numbers throughout time). In the start of human civilization it took 2 thousand years just to add 10 million people but in the end of the 20th century it only took twelve years to add 1 billion people to this earth! The time it takes the population to double or increase dramatically is becoming closer and closer. The more people that are being added the more food and shelter is needed to support them. The way we get the food and shelter is from the environment, and it is very quickly running out of resources to give us. Environment The growing human populatio