32: Solving the Population Problem

Question 1

Which populations are growing?

Answer 1

the less developed countries

Question 2

What is ecological footprint?

Answer 2

expresses the impact that a person (or a population) has on the environment
- often measured in terms of land and water needed to provide resources and dispose of waste
- ex: paper, air conditioning, fuel, food
- has increased a lot throughout the years

Question 3

What is biocapacity?

Answer 3

carrying capacity of earth
- we have exceeded our carrying capacity (using many more resources and is not sustainable)

Question 4

What is overconsumption?

Answer 4

larger and larger ecological footprint
- more developed countries

Question 5

What is overpopulation?

Answer 5

too many people
- less developed countries

Question 6

What needs to be done in less developed and more developed countries?

Answer 6

need to reduce numbers in less developed countries and need to reduce consumption in more developed countries

Question 7

How do we reduce world population growth?

Answer 7

birth –> population (N) –> death
- don’t increase mortality!!!
- decrease natality (births)!!!!

Question 8

In what ways can we reduce world population growth?

Answer 8

1. reduce poverty
2. improve the status of women
3. encourage family planning

Question 9

How can reducing poverty reduce world population growth?

Answer 9

will reduce the total fertility rates

Question 10

What is the current status of women?

Answer 10

1. in charge of domestic work and childcare
2. work 2/3 of all the hours worked but receive 1/10 of world’s income
3. own a small fraction of world’s property
4. in some countries, women can’t own land or borrow money
5. women constitute 2/3 of illiterate population
6. get less health care, more than 1 million die of pregnancy-related preventable causes

WE WANT TO EMPOWER WOMEN

Question 11

How can encouraging family planning reduce world population growth?

Answer 11

give people the tools to decide to have the desired number of children and their spacing and the timing of those births

Question 12

How does the WHO define family planning?

Answer 12

allowing individuals and couples to anticipate and obtain their desired number of children and the spacing and timing of their births
- gives them the tools that will enable them to decide how many and when they want to have the children

Question 13

How is family planning done?

Answer 13

1. using contraceptive methods to prevent births
2. help people have more children through the treatment of fertility

Question 14

What is China’s One Child Policy?

Answer 14

1979; policy where many Chinese citizens couldn’t have a second child without incurring a fine
- in rural areas, families were allowed to have two children if the first was a girl

Question 15

What did campaigners claim the policy led to?

Answer 15

forced abortions, female infanticide, and the under-reporting of female births
- gender imbalance
- shrinkage in working age population

Question 16

What were the UN recommendations in 1994?

Answer 16

1. provide universal access to services for family planning
2. improve health care for infants, children, and pregnant women
3. establish national population policies
4. encourage more equitable relations between men and women
5. increase access to education
6. increase involvement of man in childrearing and family planning
7. eradicate poverty
8. reduce/eliminate unsustainable patterns of production and consumption