Rapid population growth can cause which of the following?

• A. Economic growth independent of resource use.
• B. Stabilization of resource bases.
• C. Overexploitation of renewable resources.
• D. Decreased resource use.

Answer: (C)

Rapid population growth raises demand for food, water, energy, and materials, so renewable resources must be used more quickly. Renewable resources can replenish, but only if harvest stays within the rate at which they can recover. When more people are drawing on them, consumption can exceed renewal, leading to depletion and damage to the resource base. This overexploitation is the most likely outcome of rapid growth because it directly reflects the imbalance between rising demand and natural regeneration. The idea that economic growth would occur independently of resource use doesn’t hold when population and demand are expanding; stabilized resource bases would require constraints on use or changes in consumption, not automatic results of growth; and decreasing resource use contradicts the expected rise in demand with more people.