Chapter 6

Question 1

Historical Statistics to Human Population

Answer 1

fewer than 1 billion people in 1800 to 7 billion people today; nearly all of the growth occurred in the past 200 years

Question 2

Global Patterns

Answer 2

China and India have the greatest populations in the world; United States is the third largest

Question 3

Current Global Growth Rate

Answer 3

• Populations in poorer nations are growing faster and populations in industrialized nations are decreasing
• The annual growth rate peaked in the late 1960s and has declined since then

Question 4

Relationship between population size, growth rate and total growth

Answer 4

.

Question 5

Causes of Population Growth

Answer 5

technological innovation, improved sanitation, better medical care, increased agricultural output, and other factors that have brought down death rates; reduction in infant mortality rates; births have outpaced deaths leading to increased population growth

Question 6

Consequences of Population Growth

Answer 6

Environmental degradation, resource depletion, less space to live, less food to eat, less material wealth; decline in quality of life

Question 7

Malthusians

Answer 7

Thomas Malthus: British economists wrote an Essay on the Principle of Population and said that if society did not reduce its birth rate then rising death rates would reduce the population through war, disease and starvation

Question 8

Cornucopians

Answer 8

a futurist who believes that continued progress and provision of material items for mankind can be met by similarly continued advances in technology. Fundamentally they believe that there is enough matter and energy on the Earth to provide for the population of the world.

Question 9

Causes of Population Decline

Answer 9

war, famine, disease, starvation, low birth rate and AIDS

Question 10

Consequences of Population Decline

Answer 10

.

Question 11

IPAT model

Answer 11

formula that represents how our total impact (I) on the environment results from interaction among population (P), affluence (A) and technology (T)
I=PAT

Question 12

Earth’s carrying capacity

Answer 12

the global ecological footprint of the human population is estimated to be 50% greater than what Earth can bear; if population and consumption continue to rise we will increase our ecological deficit

Question 13

Population Size

Answer 13

the absolute number of individuals; 7.1 billion people spread over 200+ countries

Question 14

Population Density

Answer 14

highest in regions with temperate, subtropical and tropical climates and lowest in extreme climate biomes such as desert, rainforest and tundra; more dense along sea coasts and rivers and less dense away from water

Question 15

Population Distrubtion

Answer 15

uneven across our planet; our distribution is clumped; uneven distribution means certain areas have more environmental impact than others

Question 16

Age Structure

Answer 16

AKA population pyramids; shows number of people at different age groups/ stages of life

Question 17

Sex Ratios

Answer 17

the ratio of males to females; usually 1:1 but does not have to be

Question 18

Demographic Rates

Answer 18

affected by births, deaths, immigration and emigration if a population grows or shrinks or remains stable

Question 19

Population Projections

Answer 19

Africa will experience the greatest population growth of any region in coming decades; estimated to reach global population to 11 billion by 2050

Question 20

Total Fertility

Answer 20

the average number of children born per woman during her lifetime

Question 21

Replacement Fertility

Answer 21

the total fertility rate that keeps the size of the population stable

Question 22

Mortality

Answer 22

rate of deaths; infant mortality highest in poorer nations and lowest in wealthier nations

Question 23

Immigration

Answer 23

coming to live permanently in a foreign country

Question 24

Emigration

Answer 24

leaving one’s resident country to settle somewhere else

Question 25

Demographic Transition

Answer 25

theoretical model of economic and cultural change that explains the declining death rates and birth rates that occurred in Western nations as they became industrialized; says industrialization caused these rates to fall naturally by decreasing mortality and by lessening the need for large families; parents invested in quality of life rather than quantity of children

Question 26

Birth Control

Answer 26

effort to control the number of children one bears; relies on contraception; reduces frequency of pregnancy

Question 27

Family Planning

Answer 27

the effort to plan the number and spacing of one’s children; information and counseling available to parents

Question 28

Empowering women reduces fertility rates

Answer 28

in places where women are freer to decide whether and when to have children fertility rates fall and resulting children are better cared for, healthier and better educated; ability to make reproductive decisions; increasing female literacy is strongly related to reduced birth rates

Question 29

China’s One-Child Policy Benefits

Answer 29

• Slowed growth rate

- One-child families rewarded with better housing, medical care, and access to schools

Question 30

China’s One-Child Policy Costs

Answer 30

• Shrinking labor force, increasing number of elderly people and too few women
• Families with more than one child fined, employment discrimination and social scorn; farmers and ethnic minorities exempt

Question 31

U.S. federal policy on family planning

Answer 31

Title X family planning enacted in 1970: provides high quality and cost-effective family planning and related preventive health services for low-income women and men

Question 32

Impact of poverty

Answer 32

regions with the lowest per capita income tend to have the most rapid population growth; poverty worsens population growth and rapid population growth worsens poverty

Question 33

Impact of affluence

Answer 33

Can increase the environmental impact per person; wealthier people leave larger per capita ecological footprints because of the way they live; consumption and waste rises