Topic 2: Population Flashcards
Impact of humanity on environment depends on..
Pop
Affluence
Technology
Greater pop affects environment by..
Extraction of resources
Occupation of space
Pollution
Disposal of waste
Climate change
Age structure effects
Female availability effect: high pop growth means fewer women in workforce
Youth effect: high pop growth initially -> large supply of people too young to work
Retirement effect: slow pop growth -> large % of persons too old to work
Estimated groundwater withdrawals
China and India increase
US: stable
Reasons for falling fertility
Improved medicine (lower child mortality -> no need for many children)
Social change- gender equality
Education of women (empowerment, higher value in employment -> greater ‘opportunity cost’ of having children
Economic growth (higher incomes -> greater opp cost of having children)
Opportunity cost
Suppose that to pursue benefit A you have to give up some of benefit B
Value of B that you give up: opp cost of obtaining benefit A
Kuznets Curve
Y axis: environmental impact; X axis: income per capita
Phase 1: priority given to increasing wealth, increasing use of resources or increased emissions
Phase 2: wealth -> increased demand for environ. goods and increasing technical capacity to provide them or reduced pop growth
Implication: economic growth good for environment, eventually
Rev. Thomas Malthus
‘An Essay on the Principle of Population ‘ (1798)
Predicted pop would grow faster than the supply of food and resources could
Criticised English Poor Laws because poverty was inevitable
What allowed food to increase?
Economics: economies of scale; private incentives (privatisation of land); markets, trade (influence of prices due to scarcity)
Technology: crop varieties; machinery; pesticides
Short term
Pop growth increases demand for food -> higher prices
High prices -> reduced consumption; increased production (=reallocation of resources from other parts of economy); investment in increased capacity
Long term
Investment in R&D (plant breeding, new farming systems & technologies)
Increase in supply of food
-> lower prices
If R&D is effective enough -> can outpace increase in demand
Real
Inflation factored out
Technology effects
Technological development can create or worsen environmental problems (some relatively toxic herbicides getting into waterways)
Technology can reduce environmental problems (Glyphosphate herbicide allowing farmers to reduce their tillage (ploughing of soil) so that there is less soil erosion)
Technology is not environmentally good or bad in general
