Chapter 6 Flashcards
Historical Statistics to Human Population
fewer than 1 billion people in 1800 to 7 billion people today; nearly all of the growth occurred in the past 200 years
Global Patterns
China and India have the greatest populations in the world; United States is the third largest
Current Global Growth Rate
- 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
Relationship between population size, growth rate and total growth
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Causes of Population Growth
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
Consequences of Population Growth
Environmental degradation, resource depletion, less space to live, less food to eat, less material wealth; decline in quality of life
Malthusians
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
Cornucopians
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.
Causes of Population Decline
war, famine, disease, starvation, low birth rate and AIDS
Consequences of Population Decline
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IPAT model
formula that represents how our total impact (I) on the environment results from interaction among population (P), affluence (A) and technology (T)
I=PAT
Earth’s carrying capacity
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
Population Size
the absolute number of individuals; 7.1 billion people spread over 200+ countries
Population Density
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
Population Distrubtion
uneven across our planet; our distribution is clumped; uneven distribution means certain areas have more environmental impact than others
Age Structure
AKA population pyramids; shows number of people at different age groups/ stages of life
Sex Ratios
the ratio of males to females; usually 1:1 but does not have to be
Demographic Rates
affected by births, deaths, immigration and emigration if a population grows or shrinks or remains stable
Population Projections
Africa will experience the greatest population growth of any region in coming decades; estimated to reach global population to 11 billion by 2050
Total Fertility
the average number of children born per woman during her lifetime
Replacement Fertility
the total fertility rate that keeps the size of the population stable
Mortality
rate of deaths; infant mortality highest in poorer nations and lowest in wealthier nations
Immigration
coming to live permanently in a foreign country
Emigration
leaving one’s resident country to settle somewhere else
Demographic Transition
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
Birth Control
effort to control the number of children one bears; relies on contraception; reduces frequency of pregnancy
Family Planning
the effort to plan the number and spacing of one’s children; information and counseling available to parents
Empowering women reduces fertility rates
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
China’s One-Child Policy Benefits
- Slowed growth rate
- One-child families rewarded with better housing, medical care, and access to schools
China’s One-Child Policy Costs
- 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
U.S. federal policy on family planning
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
Impact of poverty
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
Impact of affluence
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
