SG 7

Question 1

Discuss the ways in which population growth affects the environment.

Answer 1

Important indirect driver of environmental degradation

Space
Food
Water
Transportation
Consumer goods
Waste production

-Important to control to alleviate
poverty and affluence

Other important indirect drivers

Question 2

What is the human population currently estimated at? What is the average growth rate? Remember that exponential growth allows small numbers to have large consequences.

Answer 2

7 billion

1.12% Growth

Question 3

Using the equation I = P x A x T, discuss how population, affluence, and technology impact the environment?

Answer 3

Increased pg. 193

**

Question 4

What is the Earth’s carrying capacity estimated at? Describe some of the ways that we have increased the human
carrying capacity.

Answer 4

No one really knows for sure

Estimates from 1 to 33 billion

Depend on assumptions of
standard of living, resource
consumption, technological
innovations, and waste generation

Analyzed results of 69 studies
Upper limit of 7.7 billion

Using tech to overcome natural limits

Question 5

According to the global ecological footprint, have we exceeded the Earth’s carrying capacity? If so, when?

Answer 5

Ecological footprint exceeded planet about 1970

Question 6

Define demography.

Understand that population size alone is not sufficient to understand our impact on the
environment. A population’s environmental impact depends on density, distribution, age structure, affluence, and technology.

Answer 6

...is the social science that
applies the principles of
population ecology to the
study of statistical change in
human populations

Question 7

What are the world’s three largest countries in terms of population size?

Answer 7

China, India, USA

Question 8

What is considered the best guess estimate of the human population in 2050? What do these estimates depend on?

Answer 8

9.9 billion.

Density, distribution, composition, affluence and tech.

Question 9

What is meant by zero population growth?

Answer 9

Birth Rate = Death Rate

2 children per female

Question 10

Where are high population densities of humans found? Low?

Answer 10

High in regions with temperate, subtropic, and tropical climates and coast lines-
China, US, Europe, Mexico, S. Africa, India

Lower- Low in regions with extreme climates
Desert, tundra, deep rain forest
Regions far from water

Question 11

Give an example of a country with a high population density? Are humans evenly distributed across the globe?

Answer 11

China, US, Europe, Mexico, S. Africa, India.

No because favorable climates and location to water.

Question 12

Why are areas with low population density also vulnerable to environmental impacts?

Answer 12

Less enforceable regulations, more energy, gas and resources.

Question 13

What type of population distribution best describes our species?

Answer 13

Clumping.

Question 14

Describe some of the potential impacts of “graying populations” on society?

Answer 14

Longer lives mean a larger percentage of elderly

Question 15

Define total fertility rate (TFR). What factors have been shown to lower the TFR?

Answer 15

Average # of children born per female in her lifetime

Women’s rights and industrialization and quality of health care

Question 16

Define replacement fertility rate. What is the replacement fertility rate for humans?

Answer 16

A TFR that keeps population size stable.

2.1 children born per female.

Question 17

Which regions of the world have the highest TFRs? The lowest?

Answer 17

Niger, South Sudan, Congo, Dom. Rep.

Lowest: S. Korea, Romania, Singapore

Question 18

Understand what is meant by the demographic transition and describe its stages.

Answer 18

Model of economic and cultural change that
explains the declining death rates and birth
rates that occurred in nations as they became industrialized.

Pre-industrial, birth and death high.
Transitional, declining death cuz rate increase food.
Industrial, Women working and birth control birth rate fall.
Post-Industrial, stabalizing

Question 19

Describe how poverty correlates with population growth. How do these factors in turn impact the environment?

Answer 19

High death rate, no birth control, no sex ed.

Question 20

Recognize that demographers estimate that 99% of the next billion people born will live in developing nations.

Answer 20

k

Question 21

Describe the relationship between affluence and the environment. Know that it is estimated that the richest 20% of the world’s people consume about 85% of its resources.

Answer 21

Wealth and resource consumption can produce even more severe and far-reaching environmental impacts

Individuals from affluent countries have a considerably larger per capita ecological footprint