Europe’s population increases, effects debated on YouTube

(Rafael Ramirez Lee)

Europe's population increased between 2009 and 2010, and it is generally thought that increases in the world's population will lead to environmental damage and competition for resources. Groups on both sides of the debate are trying to gain public support through video hosting website youtube.com.

European statistical database Eurostat reported growth in the European population of 1.4 million people from January 1, 2009 to January 1, 2010. The July 27 report by Eurostat revealed that the populations of countries within the European Union (EU27) increased from 499.7 million to 501.1 million; the five countries with the biggest increases in population were Ireland, the United Kingdom, France, Cyprus and Sweden.

In contrast, the population of 160,000 square km Henan province in central China is expected to have reached 100 million by the end of July according to the Chinese state news service.

An argument generally acknowledged by international organizations such as the United Nations Population Fund is that the growth of the world's population will increase the strain on resources and reduce living space. This in turn will force increasing numbers of people into competition for diminishing resources and living space as well as leading to further environmental damage as more fuel is needed to meet the needs of growing populations. For example according to European Energy database Oil Drum, China's growing population now consumes 50 percent of the world's coal.

However global non-profit research group the Population Research Institute refutes this impact of overpopulation on the world's resources and has released a series of videos on youtube.com, the latest of which was released on May 3, and has attracted over 117,000 views.

Rival video by world population awareness group overpopulation.org has attracted approximately a mere 3,700 views. Other videos showing the effects of overpopulation on urban areas are also available on sites such as nationalgeographic.com.

http://www.youtube.com/Colinpri1

http://www.youtube.com/user/RapidPopDecline