CHAPTER 5
APPLYING POPULATION ECOLOGY: THE HUMAN POPULATION
THINKING
Objectives
1.Define birth rate, death rate. Write an equation to mathematically describe the relationship between these rates and the rate of population change.
2.Distinguish between replacement-level fertility and total fertility rate. Describe how these fertility rates affect population growth.
3.Describe historical changes in the U.S. fertility rate. List at least five factors that affect birth rate and five factors that affect death rate.
4.Using population age structure diagrams, explain how the age structure of a country creates population growth momentum.
5.Summarize the controversy over reducing the human population growth rate. List and evaluate four strategies for influencing human population size.
6.List the four stages of the demographic transition. List social, biological, political, and economic issues that can be addressed to help developing countries undergo a demographic transition.
7.Compare and evaluate the population policies of India, China, and Thailand.
8.Describe the current worldwide trend in population distribution. Describe the three major shifts in population distribution in U.S. history.
9.Summarize and evaluate urban transportation options. Be sure to include both individual transit and mass transit.
10.List seven urban resource and environmental problems. Describe a sustainable city.
Key Terms (Terms are listed in the same font style as they appear in the text.)
1
Applying Population Ecology: The Human Population
population change (p. 77)
birth rate (p. 77)
crude birth rate (p. 77)
death rate (p. 77)
crude death rate (p. 77)
fertility (p. 78)
replacement-level fertility (p. 78)
total fertility rate (TFR) (p. 78)
life expectancy (p. 81)
infant mortality rate (p. 81)
age structure (p. 82)
prereproductive (p. 82)
reproductive (p. 82)
postreproductive (p. 82)
demographically divided world (p. 82)
baby boom (p. 83)
demographic transition (p. 85)
preindustrial stage (p. 85)
transitional stage (p. 85)
industrial stage (p. 85)
postindustrial stage (p. 85)
demographic trap (p. 85)
family planning (p. 86)
gender imbalance (p. 88)
megacities (p. 89)
megalopolis (p. 89)
urban sprawl (p. 91)
infectious disease (p. 93)
urban heat island (p. 93)
light pollution (p. 93)
squatter settlements (p. 94)
shantytowns (p. 94)
compact cities (p. 94)
bicycles (p. 96)
motor scooters (p. 96)
mass transit rail systems (p. 96)
bus systems (p. 96)
rapid rail systems (p. 96)
new urbanism (p. 97)
smart growth (p. 97)
walkability (p. 98)
mixed-use and diversity (p. 98)
quality urban design (p. 98)
environmental sustainability (p. 98)
smart transportation (p. 98)
ecocity (p. 98)
green city (p. 98)
1
Applying Population Ecology: The Human Population
Outline
5-1Factors Affecting Human Population Size
A.Population increases through births and immigration and decreases through deaths and emigration. [population change = (Births + Immigration) – (Deaths + Emigration)]
1.The crude birth rate is the number of live births per 1,000 people in a population in a specific year.
2.The crude death rate is the number of deaths per 1,000 people in a population in a specific year.
B.There are currently more deaths than births throughout the world.
1.Eq FIRST: the annual rate of natural population change = birth rate minus death rate divided by 1,000 persons multiplied by 100.
2.Eq LAST = birth rate minus death rate divided by 10.
3.The rate of the world’s population growth has decreased.
4.However, the population base doubled between 1963 and 2004.
C.The populations of China and India comprise 38% of the world’s population. The world’s population growth has been supported by three things:
1.Humans expanded into new habitats and different climate zones.
2.The carrying capacity of land (through agriculture) increased to feed larger numbers of people.
3.The limits of disease, food, water, and energy supplies have been postponed through sanitation, antibiotics and vaccines, and use of concentrated energy sources.
4.The changing nature of fertility rates affects population growth.
a.Replacement-level fertility is the number of children needed to replace their parents.
b.Total fertility rate (TFR) is the average number of children that women have during their fertile years.
5.55% of U.S. population growth comes from more births than deaths; 45% comes from immigration.
a.Other major developed countries have slower population growth.
b.The U.S. per capita resource rate produces enormous environmental impact.
D.Many factors influence birth and fertility rates.
1.More children work in developing countries; they are important to the labor force.
2.The economic cost of raising and educating children determines their numbers. The more children cost, the fewer children people tend to have.
3.If there are available private/public pension systems, adults have fewer children because they don’t need children to take care of them in old age.
4.If women have educational and economic choices, they have fewer children.
5.When the infant mortality rate is low, people have fewer children because children are not lost to death.
6.The older the age at which women marry, the lower the number of children.
7.If abortions are available and legal, women have fewer children.
8.Sterilization as birth control is the preferred world method (39%).
E. Factors that have caused a decline in death rates include the following:
1.Better food supplies and nutrition and safer water supplies contribute to people’s living longer.
2.Advances in medicine and public health, improved sanitation, and personal hygiene also contribute to people’s living longer.
F.Measures of overall health:
1.Life expectancy is the average number of years a newborn can expect to live.
2.Infant mortality rate is the number of babies out of every 100 born who die before their first birthday.
a.This rate reflects a country’s level of nutrition and health care.
b.It is the single best measure of a society’s quality of life.
3.U.S. infant mortality rate is higher than 35 other countries because of:
a.inadequate health care for poor women and for babies.
b.drug addiction among pregnant women.
c.high birth rate among teenagers.
G.Arguments to limit immigration into the U.S.:
1.Limitations would aid in stabilizing the population sooner.
2.Limitations would help reduce the U.S.’s enormous environmental impact.
H.Arguments for generous immigration policies in the U.S.:
1.Historically, the U.S. has been the land of opportunity for the world’s poor.
2.Immigrants do work that Americans are not trained for or won’t do.
3.Immigrants contribute to the economy and pay taxes.
5-2Population Age Structure
Age structure diagrams are visual aids that show the distribution of males and females in each age group.
A.The percentages of male and females in the total population are divided into the following age categories:
1.Prereproductive ages span from birth to 14 years of age.
2.Reproductive ages include 15 through 44.
3.Postreproductive ages include ages 45 and up.
B.The major determining factor in a country’s future population growth is the number of people under the age of 15.
1.In 2004, 30% of the planet’s population was under 15.
2.The world is demographically divided.
C.Changes in the distribution of a country’s age groups have long-lasting economic and social impacts; for example, the “baby boom” generation in the U.S.
1.Such a group can dominate the population’s demands.
2.They influence elections, legislation, and economic demand.
D.The “baby bust” generation compared to the “baby boom.”
1.There will be fewer people to compete for education, jobs, and services.
2.Too few people in the labor force may increase wages.
E.Reduced fertility and population decline has long-term consequences, especially if the decline is rapid.
1.There can be a sharp rise in the proportion of older people.
a.Produces a sharp rise in public services’ cost for health, etc.
b.May have many fewer working taxpayers and labor shortages.
2.If population declines because of deaths, consequences are serious.
a.Deaths from disease such as AIDS disrupt a country’s social and economic structure.
b.Large numbers of people in a particular age are removed from the country’s future:
1)Life expectancy drops.
2)In the case of AIDS, the deaths are mostly to young adults who usually help run the country and everyday life for millions.
5-3Solutions: Influencing Population Size
A.Can the world sustain a rising population without causing widespread environmental damage?
1.More consumers = more growth.
a.People are the world’s resource as consumers and as problem solvers.
b.Religious and political arguments are voiced against limiting population growth.
2.The world is already overpopulated.
a.Basic necessities of life are not provided for one out of six people today.
b.Declining health and environmental conditions will threaten the entire world.
c.Increased resource use and environmental harm is compromising the life of the environment through: infectious disease, biodiversity loss, fishery depletion, water scarcity, pollution, and climate change.
d.The quality of life on the planet and for all its people require some limits on everyone.
B.Population size and migration influence a country’s quality of life.
1.Migration raises the standard of living for migrants.
2.Migration increases family income when migrants send money home.
3.Migration can lead to a “brain drain” in the countries that migrants leave.
C.The demographic transition hypothesis states that as countries become industrialized, first their death rates and then their birth rates decline in four stages.
1.The preindustrial stage produces high birth and death rates because living conditions are harsh.
2.The transitional state sees food production rise and health care improve. Death rates drop and birth rates rise.
3.The industrial stage causes the birth rate to begin to drop; the death rate drops because of widespread industrialization, medical advances and modernization.
4.The postindustrial stage moves to the birth rate equaling the death rate resulting in zero population growth. Population size will begin slowly decreasing.
D.Some countries run the risk of getting caught in the transitional state; economic conditions will not be available to sustain the population.
1.There can be a shortage of skilled workers to sustain the country’s economy.
2.There will not be capital and resources to support rapidly developing economies.
a.International debt takes much of a country’s resources.
b.Developing countries are not helping underdeveloped countries economically.
E.Family planning helps reduce the number of births and abortions throughout the world.
1.Information is given on birth spacing, birth control, and health care.
2.Services come through educational and clinical services.
a.Almost one-half of pregnancies in developing countries are unplanned.
b.Women want to limit their pregnancies but have no access to contraceptives.
3.Family planning success can be improved through these methods:
a.Target programs to teenagers and unmarried, sexually active women.
b.Develop programs for educating men about their responsibilities for the children they father.
c.Provide more effective means of birth control for men and women.
d.Advocate that pro-choice and pro-life groups join to reduce unplanned birth and abortions.
4.Empower women by providing education, paying jobs, and supporting their human rights.
a.Women work two-thirds of all hours worked but receive only 10% of the world’s income.
b.Empowering women with these things would slow population growth, promote human rights, reduce poverty, and slow environmental degradation.
F.Reducing population growth can best be achieved by investing in family planning, reducing poverty, and elevating the status of women.
G.The goals of the UN’s Conference on Population and Development are to:
1.Provide universal access to family planning services and reproductive health care.
2.Improve health care for infants, children, and pregnant women.
3.Develop and implement national population policies.
4.Improve the status of women by expanding education and job opportunities for young women.
5.Provide more education, especially for girls and women.
6.Increase men’s involvement in child rearing and family planning.
7.Sharply reduce poverty.
8.Sharply reduce unsustainable patterns of production and consumption.
5-4Case Studies: India and China
A.India has tried to control its population growth for years.
1.Overpopulation ills of poverty, malnutrition, and environmental problems abound in India.
2.One-half of India’s labor force is unemployed; half of its cropland is degraded; two-thirds of its water is seriously polluted.
3.Efforts to limit population have not been especially successful because:
a.Poor couples believe they need several children for work and care.
b.There is a strong preference for male children so many do not use birth control.
B.Population growth in China has been controlled by a strongly enforced government program.
1.Between 1972 and 2004, China’s birthrate was cut in half.
2.Couples with one child are rewarded with extra food, larger pensions, better housing, bonuses, free school tuition, and preferential employment treatment for the child.
3.83% of married women use modern contraception, provided free by the government.
4.China’s population has an enormous environmental impact that may affect its production of food.
5-5Population Distribution: Urban Growth and Problems
Urban populations are attracting more and more people throughout the world, developing into centers of poverty.
A.About one half of the world’s people live in cities/densely populated urban areas, drawn there for better jobs and a better life.
1.Cities provide jobs, food, housing, a better life, entertainment, and freedom from religious, racial, and political conflicts of village life.
2.People are pushed to cities by poverty, no land, declining work, famine, and war.
B.Urban trends that affect urban growth are:
1.The number/proportion of people living in urban areas is growing.
a.Most urban areas are along countries’ coastal areas.
b.Most huge urban areas are in developing countries.
2.The number of large cities (a million or more people) is increasing rapidly.
a.Megacities or megalopolises contain 10 million+ people.
b.Megalopolis is a merger of a city(cities) and adjacent urban areas; two such areas are Bowash (Boston-Washington) and Chipitts (Chicago-Pittsburgh).
3.Urban population is rapidly increasing in developing countries.
4.Urban growth is much more rapid in developing countries, but developed countries will be 84% urbanized by 2030.
5.Poverty is becoming more common in urban areas, especially in developing countries.
C.The urban poor and the rural poor both live in unhealthy conditions.
1.Large cities have squatter settlements and shantytowns for the poor—places that provide metal, plastic sheets, scrap wood, and discarded packing crates to build shelters. Some places develop communities with hope for a better life.
2.These urban settlements have the worst/nonexistent services: lack of clean water, sewers, electricity, etc. There are often severe air, water, and hazardous waste pollutants.
3.Governments often force people away; they resettle somewhere else and the cycle begins again.
4.The rural poor tend to have more children and less educational opportunity.
D.Mexico City is an environmental nightmare and an urban disaster.
1.The negatives of Mexico City are overwhelming: rapid population growth, severe pollution, disease, and poverty.
2.About 1 in every 6 Mexicans lives in the city; they suffer from high unemployment, noise, traffic congestion, soaring crime, etc. Barrios are the slum settlements.
3.Lack of sewage services has produced bacteria-laden, dried, human excrement which is spread by the wind; it is called fecal snow and causes widespread salmonella and hepatitis.
4.Breathing the air in Mexico City is the same as smoking three packs of cigarettes per day.
5.The city’s air and water pollution causes 100,000 premature deaths per year.
E.Three of four Americans live in urban areas; about half of them live in suburban areas. These urban areas are cities with at least a population of 50,000 people.
1.People first migrated from rural areas to large central cities.
2.Then, people migrated from large central cities to suburbs/smaller cities.
3.Next, people migrated from the North and East to the South and West (1980--).
4.Lastly, some have migrated away from urban areas back to rural areas (1990--).
F.Urban life’s quality in America has improved but problems remain.
1.Overall, people have better working and housing conditions and improved air and water quality. City services have improved.
2.Older cities have deteriorating services and aging infrastructures.
a.Budget cuts compromise services and infrastructures.
b.Poverty in cities is rising, as is unemployment.
G.Urban areas tend to sprawl outward and eat up surrounding countryside—urban sprawl.
1.Low-density development is growing and encouraging dependence on cars.
2.Sprawl is a byproduct of affordable land, cars, poor urban planning, and cheap gas.
3.Problems caused have been decreased energy efficiency; increased urban flooding; destruction of cropland, forest, and open space; and longer travel time.
5-6Urban Environmental and Resource Problems
A.The advantages of urbanization:
1.Cities are centers of economic development, jobs, commerce, and transportation.
2.Urban populations are generally healthier with better access to medical care, family planning information, education, and social services.
3.Recycling is more feasible and environmental protection is better supported.
4.People concentrated in an area preserves biodiversity and wildlife habitats.
B.The disadvantages of urbanization:
1.Cities do not sustain themselves; they concentrate pollutants and noise, spread infectious diseases, and are centers of crime, poverty, and terrorism.
2.They threaten biodiversity, produce huge wastes, and consume about 75% of the world’s resources.
3.Cities huge use of resources depletes the environments around them. Flooding is a problem because of location and water runoff.
4.The heat produced in cities creates urban heat islands that affect the climate over a large area and keep polluted air from being cleaned.
5-7Transportation and Urban Development
Urban development is affected by land availability and transportation systems.