Population, Urbanization, and Environment

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Population, Urbanization, and Environment
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Demography the Study of Population

• Fertility- the incident of childbearing in a
  countrys population.
• Fecundity- or maximum possible childbearing is
  sharply reduced by cultural norms, finances and
  personal choice.
• Mortality- Mortality the incidence of death in a
  countrys population.
• crude death rate- the number of deaths in a given
  year for every thousand people in a population.

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• infant mortality rate- the number of deaths among
  infants under one year of age for every thousand
  births in a given year.
• life expectancy- the average life span of a
  countrys population.
• Migration- the movement of people into and out of
  a specific territory.
• Population Growth- Fertility, mortality, and
  migration all affect the size of a societys
  population.

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Health and Theory of Population

• A Major demographic shift began about 1750 as the
  worlds population turned upward, reaching the 1
  billion mark by 1800. This milestone was
  repeated by 1930barely a century laterwhen a
  second billion people were added to the planet.
  Global population reached 3 billion by 1962 and 4
  billion by 1974. The rate of world population
  has increase has slowed recently, but our planet
  passed the 5 billion mark in 1987 and the 6
  billion mark in late 1999.

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Malthusian Theory

• Malthus main argument was that our world was
  heading towards social chaos. Because population
  would tend to increase in geometric progression
  (2, 4, 8, 16, 32), whereas food production would
  increase in arithmetic progression (2, 3, 4, 5,
  6) because farmland is limited.
• Malthus offers an important lesson. Habitable
  land, clean water, and fresh air are limited
  resources, and presently, greater economic
  productivity has taken a heavy toll on the
  natural environment. People everywhere should
  become aware of the dangers of population
  increase.

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Demographic Transition Theory

• Demographic transition theory- the thesis that
  population patterns reflect a societys level of
  technological development.
• Stage 1- have high birth rates because of the
  economic value of children and the absence of
  birth control.
• Stage 2- the onset of industrialization-brings a
  demographic transition as death rates fall
  because of greater food supplies and scientific
  medicine.
• Stage 3- a mature industrial economythe birth
  rate drops, curbing population growth.
• Stage 4- a post-industrial economythe
  demographic transition is complete.

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The Evolution of Cities

• Only about 12,000 years ago did our ancestors
  begin founding permanent settlements, launching
  the first urban revolution.

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The First Cities

• Before humans could build permanent settlements,
  they had to discover how to domesticate animals
  and cultivate crops.
• The emergence of cities, then, led to
  specialization and higher living standards.

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Preindustrial European cities

• Medieval cities ere very different from todays
  cities. Beneath towering cathedrals, the narrow
  and winding streets of London, Brussels, and
  Florence teemed with merchants, artisans,
  priests, peddlers, jugglers, nobles, and servants.

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Industrial European Cities

• As the Middle Ages came to a close, steadily
  increasing commerce enriched a new urban middle
  class or bourgeoisie. With more and more money,
  the Bourgeoisie soon rivaled the heredity
  nobility.
• By 1750, the Industrial Revolution triggered a
  second urban revolution.

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The Growth of U.S. Cities

• metropolis- a large city that socially and
  economically dominates an urban area.
• suburbs- urban areas beyond the political
  boundaries of a city.

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Post industrial Sunbelt Cities

• About 1950, cities began to decentralize with the
  growth of suburbs and edge cities.

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Megalopolis Regional Cities

• megalopolis- a vast urban region containing a
  number of cities and their surrounding suburbs.

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Ferdinand Tonnies Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft

• Gemeinschaft-a type of social organization by
  which people are closely tied by kinship and
  tradition. (loosely meaning community)
• The Gemeinschaft of the rural village joins
  people in what amounts to a single primary group.
• Tonnies argued that Gemienshaft is absent in the
  modern city. On the contrary urbanization
  fosters Gesellschaft.
• Tonnies saw urbanization as the erosion of close,
  enduring social relations in favor of the
  fleeting and impersonal ties typical of business.

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Emil Durkheim Mechanical and Organic Solidarity

• Emil Durkheim agreed with much of Tonniess
  thinking. But Durkheim countered, urbanites do
  not lack social bonds they simply organize
  social life differently than rural people.
• Mechanical solidarity- social bonds based on
  common sentiments and shared moral values. This
  concept emphasizes tradition and is very close to
  Gemeinschaft.

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• Organic solidarity- social bonds based on
  specialization and inter social bonds based on
  specialization and interdependence. This concept
  which parellels Tonniess Gesellschaft reveals an
  important difference between the two thinkers.
  Both thought the growth of industrial cities
  undermined tradition, but Durkheim optimistically
  pointed to a new kind of solidarity.
• Where societies had been built on likeness,
  Durkheim now saw social life based on difference.

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Environment and Society

• Ecology- the study of the interaction of living
  organisms and the natural environment.
• The Natural Environment- the Earths surface and
  atmosphere, including living organisms, air,
  water, soil, and other resources necessary to
  sustain life.

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The Global Dimension

• The study of the natural environment must take a
  global perspective. The reason is simple
  Regardless of political divisions between
  nations, the planet is a single ecosystem.
• Ecosystem- a system composed of the interaction
  of all living organisms and their natural
  environment.

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Technology

• As humans have developed more powerful
  technology, we have increasingly remade the world
  as we choose.
• Human control of the natural environment grew
  dramatically with the Industrial Revolution.
  Muscle power gave way to engines that burn fossil
  fuels, coal at first then oil. Such machinery
  affects the environment in two ways by consuming
  natural resources and by releasing pollutants
  into the atmosphere. Humans also tunnel through
  mountains, dam rivers, irrigate deserts, and
  drill for oil in the bottom of the ocean.

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• Higher living standards increase the problem of
  solid waste and pollution.
• Environmental deficit- profound and long-term
  harm to the natural environment caused by
  humanitys focus on short-term material
  affluence.
• First it reminds us that the state of the
  environment is a social issue, reflecting choices
  people make about how to live.
• Second, it suggests that much environmental
  damage to the air, land, and wateris
  unintended.
• Third, in some respects, the environment deficit
  is reversible. Inasmuch as societies have
  created environmental problems, in other words,
  societies can undo many of them.

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Culture Growth and Limits

• Whether we recognize environmental dangers and
  decide to do something about them is a cultural
  matter. Thus along with technology, culture has
  powerful environmental consequences.

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The Logic of Growth

• Our nation sets aside specific areas such as
  parks and game reserves. This act indicates
  that except for specific areas, people can freely
  use natural resources for their own purposes.
• Material comfort the belief that money and the
  things it buys enrich our lives.

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The Limits of Growth

• The limits to Growth is that humanity must
  implement policies to control the growth of the
  population, production and use of resources to
  avoid environmental collapse.
• According to the limits of growth thesis, we are
  quickly consuming the Earths finite resources.
• Limits of growth theorists are also known as
  neo-Malthusian because they share Malthuss
  pessimism about the future.

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Solid Waste The Disposable Society

• The U.S. has become a disposable society. We
  consume more products than virtually any other
  nation, and many of these products have throw
  away packaging.
• Problems
• 1. Landfills across the country are filling up.
• 2. Material in landfills can pollute
  groundwater.
• 3. What goes into landfills often stays there,
  sometimes for centuries.

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Water and Air

• Through the hydrologic cycle, the Earth naturally
  recycles water and refreshes the land.

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Water Supply

• Some regions of the world especially the tropics,
  enjoy a plentiful supply of water. But high
  demand coupled with modest reserves, makes water
  supply a matter of concern in much of North
  America and Asia, where people look to rivers
  than rainfall for their water.
• Egyptians must make do with one-sixth the amount
  of water per person from the Nile compared to
  1900.

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Water Pollution

• In large citiesfrom Mexico City to Cairo to
  Shanghaimany people have no choice but to drink
  contaminated water. Infectious diseases such as
  typhoid, cholera, and dysenteryall caused by
  water borne microorganismsspread rapidly.
  Besides ensuring ample supplies of water, then we
  must protect the quality of water.
• Acid rain- made acidic by air pollution that
  destroys plant and animal life.

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Air Pollution

• Because we are surrounded by air, most people in
  the United States are more aware of air pollution
  than contaminated water. One of the unexpected
  consequences of industrial technology, especially
  the factory and the motor vehicle, has been a
  decline in air quality.

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The Rain Forests

• Rain Forests are regions of dense forestation,
  most of which circle the globe close to the
  equator.

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Global Warming

• The rain forests cleanse the atmosphere of carbon
  dioxide.
• Much of this Carbon Dioxide is absorbed by
  oceans. But plants take in Carbon Dioxide and
  expel oxygen. This is why rain forests are vital
  to maintaining the chemical balance of the
  atmosphere.
• The problem then, is that carbon dioxide
  production is rising while the amount of plant
  life on the Earth is shrinking.
• Global Warming, a rise in the Earths average
  temperature caused by an increasing concentration
  of carbon dioxide and other gasses in the
  atmosphere.

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Declining Biodiversity

• On Earth there are as many as 30 million species
  of animals, plants and microorganisms. Several
  dozen unique species of plants and animals cease
  to exist each day, but given the vast number of
  living species, why should we be concerned?
• First, our planets biodiversity provides a
  varied source of human food.
• Biodiversity is needed to feed our planets
  rapidly increasing population.
• Second, the Earths biodiversity is a vital
  genetic resource. Medical and pharmaceutical
  researchers look to animals and plant
  biodiversity for new compounds to cure disease
  and improve our lives.

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• Third, with the loss of any species of
  lifewhether it is the magnificent California
  condor, the famed Chinese panda, the spotted owl,
  or even one variety of antthe beauty and
  complexity of our natural environment are
  diminished.
• Finally unlike pollution, the extinct of any
  species is irreversible and final. An important
  ethical question then is whether we who live
  today have the right to impoverish the world for
  those who live in it tomorrow.

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• ecologically sustainable culture-a way of life
  that meets the needs of the present generation
  without threatening the environmental legacy of
  future generations.

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• First- the world needs to bring population growth
  under control. The current population of more
  than 6 billion is already straining the natural
  environment
• Second-the Earths biodiversity is a vital
  genetic resource. Medical and pharmaceutical
  researchers look to animals and plant
  biodiversity for new compounds to cure disease
  and improve our lives.

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• Third, with the loss of any species of
  lifewhether it is the magnificent California
  condor, the famed Chinese panda, the spotted owl,
  or even one variety of antthe beauty and
  complexity of our natural environment are
  diminished.
• Finally, the extinct of any species is
  irreversible and final. An important ethical
  question then is whether we who live today have
  the right to impoverish the world for those who
  live in it tomorrow.