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Each day, the population of the world increases. On average, the world population is increasing by 1.7% annually. With more and more people, there are consequences that the Earth cannot handle.

As the population of the world grows, more and more buildings are required for people to live and work in. Buildings require land to be built on. This land comes at the cost of the wildlife and wilderness areas of the U.S. Each day we encroach on more and more land that wildlife live in. This land becomes smaller and smaller, and soon the animals and plants no longer have a place to live, instead replaced by living space for humans.

On top of this problem, we need material to build these buildings. In the U.S., the most popular is the strong, sturdy, but flexible wood. We need to cut down more and more trees to build these structures. We get these trees from the forests of the world. But since we are building so much so quickly, we are quickly exhausting the tree supply of the world. This cutting of trees leads to a host of problems. First, we remove the habitat of many plants and animals, which can and has lead to the extinction of many species.

On top of this, cutting down all these trees aggravates the problem of the Greenhouse Effect. Last, the population growth means we must use more and more of our world resources. This includes fossil fuels, food, etc. We use fossil fuels to heat our homes, to run our cars and machinery, and for other purposes. However, we are using them so fast that if continue at our present rate of consumption, all the oil in the world will be gone in within most of our lifetimes. (That would get rid of our problem of Oil Spills.)

As for food, we require more and more land to grow the food or to raise livestock. This also contributes to the problem of deforestation and shrinking wilderness areas. For example, in Brazil, tropical rain forests are being cut down to create land to raise cows for meat.