Hide Notes 

Slide 1: Geodemography Population and Cultural Connections
Slide 2: What is Earth’s greatest environmental hazard?  Fossil fuel hazards (oil spills, burning of fossil fuels, cancers from petroleum, etc.)  Chemical pollution (chemicals in the natural environment, chemicals we use everyday making us sick)  Warfare    Global climate change Air pollution Lack of access to safe drinking water/pollution of water sources  Disease  Meltdown of a nuclear reactor  Nuclear waste dumps
Slide 3: What is Earth’s greatest environmental hazard? Did you guess: TOO MANY HUMANS?  All of the other kinds of resource destruction and ecological ruin stems from too many people. This is why discussions of population are so important to geographers.
Slide 4: The Population Clock http://www.poodwaddle.com/worldclock.swf
Slide 5: Carrying Capacity  What is the carrying capacity of Earth?  This is the number of a given species a given area can support through the “leanest” time of year  However…all environments are dynamic…      Long-term droughts Climate change An increase in crop-growing area Technological advances …etcetera… …can all influence ultimate carrying capacity
Slide 6: Carrying Capacity  Earth has a pretty high carrying capacity, but if you cram too many people into too small a space, you’re going to have serious problems…  The city of Ur in Mesopotamia
Slide 7: What about population explosions?  Let’s imagine the ultimate population explosion: two healthy, breeding rats and an unlimited carrying capacity.       Life expectancy—2 yrs. (730 days) Reproductive maturity—90 days Gestation—30 days Litter size—8 rats Litters per year—2 How many rats will there be at the time the original pair die? Answer: 20 MILLION RATS
Slide 8: What would happen if there was NOT an unlimited carrying capacity?    Competition for resources “Survival of the fittest” (or the meanest) A man named Thomas Malthus spent a good deal of time studying what happens in such a case
Slide 9: Theories  Thomas Malthus  Cycles of boom and bust  Paul Ehrlich  Population explosion  Resource stress  Were their theories correct?
Slide 10: Thomas Malthus An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) Over population leads to: •War •Pestilence (disease) •Famine How to avoid such a fate: •Late Marriage •Abstinence •A sense of morality
Slide 11: Dr. Paul Ehrlich Just a few of Ehrlich’s predictions:  US life expectancy would drop to 42 years old by 1980 because of pesticide use.  Population in the US would drop to 22.6 million by 1999 Congress in the 1980s because of food riots  The president would dissolve
Slide 12: Why Not???
Slide 13: Birth Control  Malthus discounted birth control as morally unacceptable.  But there have been birth control methods as far back as human herbal medicines (and maybe before) Population growth has actually slowed considerably, due to the increase in available (and sometimes forced) birth control methods 
Slide 14: Birth Control  For many, birth control is still controversial  Let’s face facts:  Humans want sex!  There will always be those who…  will not delay having sex until marriage  will not be able (or want) to abstain from having sex  are healthy, able and of childbearing age  Therefore, we will always have babies being born  Will we eventually outstrip our carrying capacity?  What other humane solutions (besides abstinence) can we come up with?
Slide 15: True or False?  The world is currently experiencing a population explosion—every world region has had an increase in population, recently. FALSE. Not all regions of the world are experiencing a population increase—some areas are actually experiencing a decrease (especially Russia, Eastern Europe, and the Baltic states) 
Slide 16: Annual Increase in World Population Millions 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1951 1956 1961 1966 1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2005 Source: United Nations, World Population Prospects: The 2004 Revision, 2005.
Slide 17: How do we know when a region has become overpopulated?
Slide 18: Overpopulation  Occurs when a population exceeds the carrying capacity of a particular ecosystem  “Quality of life” factors  Medical care  Employment  Education  Fuel and electricity  Sewage and treatment  Waste management  Transportation  Additional considerations  Crowding  Pollution  Ecosystem survival  Government policies, especially economic  Resource stresses include:  Basic human necessities  Clean water  Clean air  Food  Shelter and warmth
Slide 19: Has every place on Earth reached or exceeded its carrying capacity?  No. Technological advances have increased the carrying capacity of some regions.  Advances in energy production, agriculture, and water treatment (including desalinization) allow more people to live in a region than the natural resource base might otherwise allow.  Look at the innovations of urbanized areas around the world—such improvements to the quality of human life lead to a higher standard of living for their citizens and ultimately reduce stresses on outlying areas
Slide 20: Demographic Regions  Geographers examine how demographic traits vary from place to place  Population distribution  Population density  Population growth rate  Birthrate  Death rate  Total fertility rate (TFR)
Slide 21: World Population Distribution
Slide 23: Countries with the Most People 1. China (1,325,082,380) 2. India (1,129,667,528) 3. United States (301,967,681) 4. Indonesia (224,481,720) 5. Brazil (186,771,161) 6. Pakistan (167,806,831) 7. Nigeria (162,082,868) 8. Russia (143,201,600) 9. Bangladesh (137,493,990) 10. Japan (128,646,345)
Slide 24: Population Density Arithmetic Density: A measurement of the number of people in an area (number of people/area of land) Physiological Density: A comparison between the amount of people and the amount of land that is suitable for farming (number of people/area of arable land)
Slide 25: World Population Density (Arithmetic) People per sq km (data from 2006)
Slide 26: Top Ten Most Densely Populated Countries 1. Monaco (42,649) 2. Singapore (18,476) 3. Malta (3,206) 4. Maldives (2,760) 5. Bahrain (2,746) 6. Bangladesh (2,580) 7. Taiwan (1,810) 8. Mauritius (1,675) 9. Barbados (1,666) 10. Nauru (1,541) (# of people/sq mi)
Slide 27: Physical Factors That Affect Population Density
Slide 28: Population Growth  Birthrate  Number of births per year per 1000 people  Death rate  Number of deaths per year per 1000 people  Total fertility rate  The number of children born per woman during her reproductive years
Slide 29: Population Growth Rate Population Growth = (births + immigration) – (deaths + emigration)
Slide 30: Population Growth Rates (in percent) CIA World Fact book (2006 data)
Slide 32: More than a Numbers Game “Actual living persons, real people, real communities, their history, culture, and diversity have vanished behind the abstraction of aggregate numbers” - Vandana Shiva
Slide 33: If the world was a village of 100 people
Slide 34: 60 would be Asian 14 would be African There would be 12 Europeans There would be 8 people from Central and South America, Mexico and the Carribean 5 people would be from the US and Canada 1 person from Australia or New Zealand
Slide 35: In this 100-person community… • 80 would live in substandard housing • 50 would suffer from malnutrition, 1 would be dying of starvation • 33 would not have access to clean water • 24 people would not have electricity • 7 people would own a car • 1 would have HIV • 7 would have access to the Internet
Slide 36: 1 would have a college education 67 would be unable to read 5 would control 32% of the wealth—all of them would be from the U.S. 2 would be recently born, 1 would be near death In the village there would be 42 radios, 24 televisions, 14 telephones, and 7 computers
Slide 37: Feeding Six Billion Is there enough food to feed a population of six billion? Who are we talking about when we ask this question? Consumption – the use of raw materials and nonhuman energy, and the production of waste
Slide 38: Comparative Levels of Consumption South American – 13x Haiti- 280x India – 35x
Slide 39: Maldistribution and Malnutrition “The average European cow receives $2.50 per day in government subsidies and the average Japanese cow receives $7.50 in subsidies, while 75 percent of people in Africa live on less than $2 per day.” –World Bank Chief Economist
Slide 40: Demographic Transition
Slide 41: Demographic Transition Model
Slide 42: Stage One •High Death Rates •High Birth Rates •Children very important There are no longer any •Example: hunter-gatherer societies (pre-industrial) countries in Stage One!
Slide 43: Stage Two •Death rates fall •Better food production, disease control, etc. •Birth rates stay the same Laos •Population increases—high population growth •Early in industrialization phase
Slide 44: Stage Two • Better agricultural techniques • Better transportation • Improved public health •Cleaner water, improved sewage treatment, better hygiene More examples: Yemen, Afghanistan, Palestine, Bhutan, most of Sub-Saharan Africa
Slide 45: Stage Three • Death rates continue to decline • Birth rates start to rapidly decline • Overall decreasing population growth Costa Rica
Slide 46: Stage Three • Large families not needed to work the fields or contribute pay • Children living longer • Compulsory education • Higher women’s literacy and employment • Improvements in contraceptive technology
Slide 47: Stage Three Other Countries in Stage Three Mexico Egypt El Salvador Jamaica Philippines Surinam South Africa Algeria Lebanon Morocco Panama Ecuador And Many More…
Slide 48: Stage Four Stabilized population growth Approaching Zero Population Growth (ZPG) Higher standard of living Post-industrial phase
Slide 49: Zero Population Growth (ZPG) 2.1 kids per couple
Slide 50: Stage Four Countries in Stage Four United States Canada New Zealand Australia Brazil most of Europe Bahamas Puerto Rico Mauritius Sri Lanka
Slide 51: An Argument for Stage Five? • Declining population • Not having enough children to replace themselves • Examples: Italy, Japan, Spain, Germany, Greece, Russia