Human Population Issues PDF

“What is a man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected.” Chief Seattle  Ch. 7 - Human Population Issues Human popn growth is the most impt issue...

“What is a man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected.” Chief Seattle  Ch. 7 - Human Population Issues Human popn growth is the most impt issue facing conservation 6+ billion in 2001; 8+ billion in 2024 83% of world’s popn in Asia, Africa, Latin America Human overpopn is directly destroying large amts of wildlife habitat, ag lands Human popns are >K in some [global?] places Major warning to slow human popn growth→  Problems due to Human Overpopn: – Famine – Somalia, North Korea – War – Darfur - Sudan – Erosion, loss of farmland - Indonesia – Water/air pollution – 1st & 3rd World – Land conversion/habitat loss – Brazil – Resource extraction - Nigeria Demography: study of human popn. growth/consequences social, political, econ., ethical factors→  Metrics to measure popn growth Population density: # of people/unit area Total fertility rate: # of children born/woman in her lifetime Replacement fertility: 2.1 TFR replaces parents Goal = balanced population growth: natality = mortality This doesn’t mean zero reprod., just a balance of natality/mortality rates! Age distribution: # of people in different age classes; difficult to stabilize →  Malthus box predicted exponential human popn growth, but only numeric ag. production increase  war, famine, disease, natural disasters were limiting factors on human popns 2 medical advances changed this = ? critics argued that behavioral/tech changes would negate these effects ex: contraception; agricultural advances Misery index→  Social factors developed countries have low fertility/growth rates undeveloped countries = opposite factors: traditional/cultural, economic, religious Status of women in society direct relationship btwn ↑ education level of women and ↓ fertility rates access to contraceptives impt attitude towards family size impt # of children is often more than desired→  Spain/Italy - low fertility rates/high rates of contraception use Mexico: high fertility rate/low contraceptive use attitudes/economic status main factors Political factors popn growth/immigration policies some incentives to have children – Europe/Japan Misguided, re-engineer govt services Lack of child labor laws most countries seeking to limit popn→  China: encouraged growth in 50s nearly doubled popn in spite of war, famine, revolution (huge mortality) trying to reverse trend – 1.5 billion solutions: education, contraception Later-Longer-Fewer campaign 1-child limit (incentives) stabilized over last ~10 yrs Disastrous reversal of LLF policy recently→  India: difficult historically; poverty lack of education a major problem cultural/religious beliefs Some dramatic improvement recently - ~2.1 TFR Birth control, sterilization incentives, cultural shift, egalitarian access, reduce infant mortality Brazil: TFR from >6 to 3 over 40-yr period→