Topic 1 Introduction to Population, Resources, and the Environment

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Topic 1 Introduction to Population, Resources,
and the Environment

• A Population Geography
• B Resources
• C The Environment

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Conditions of Usage

• For personal and classroom use only
• Excludes any other form of communication such as
  conference presentations, published reports and
  papers.
• No modification and redistribution permitted
• Cannot be published, in whole or in part, in any
  form (printed or electronic) and on any media
  without consent.
• Citation
• Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue, Dept. of Economics
  Geography, Hofstra University.

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A Population Geography

• 1. Demography and Population Geography
• How population issues are investigated?
• 2. Global Demographic Trends
• What are the major global demographic trends?
• 3. The Agricultural Revolution
• What permitted the creation of the first
  civilizations?
• 4. The Industrial Revolution
• How the modern society emerged?

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1. Demography and Population Geography
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Percentage of Hispanic Population, 2000
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Diffusion of Homo Sapiens Around the World
Origins 7 million BC
By 500,000 BC
By 11,000 BC
By 2,000 BC
By 10,000 BC
By 1,000,000 BC
By 12,000 BC
By 20,000 BC
AD 500
By 40,000 BC
33,000 BC
AD 1,000
1,200 BC
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2. Demography and Population Geography

• Evolution of the worlds population
• Long historical process
• Has been very slow up to recently.
• 300 million people around year 0.
• Remained small until the last 250 years.
• A new growth trend
• Has increased almost exponentially.
• From 1.6 billion in 1900 to 6 billion in 1999.
• To what it can be linked?
• Population explosion
• Defines a process of strong demographic growth.
• Started after the Second World War.
• About 80 million people added each year.
• Major concern for the future of humanity.

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World Population, 1000BC-2050AD (in billions)
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Population Added to the Global Population,
1950-2005 (in millions per year)
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World Population 1804-2048 (in billions)
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Worlds 15 Largest Countries, 2005, 2050 (in
millions)
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2. Demography and Population Geography

• Overpopulation
• Not an absolute number, such as size or density.
• Relationship between population and available
  resources
• E.g. food, energy, water, etc.
• At some population level (overpopulation)
  additional numbers become a cause of declining
  standards of living and environmental
  degradation.
• Numbers should be linked with level of
  consumption.
• Countries with low populations can thus be
  overpopulated.
• The United States would be more overpopulated
  than China.

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The Concept of Overpopulation
gt1
Unsustainable
Overpopulation
1
Sustainable
Population / Resources
0
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3. The Agricultural Revolution

• Nature
• Also known as the Neolithic Revolution.
• Started around 10,000 BC (12,000 years ago).
• First major demographic change in human history.
• Worlds population was around 5-10 million of
  mostly nomadic tribes.
• Likely occurred around the Fertile Crescent
• Mesopotamia (The land between rivers).
• Tigris and Euphrates rivers in todays Iraq.
• Domestication of crops and animals
• Large-scale agricultural production possible and
  leading to agrarian societies.
• Dawn of civilization.
• Invention of the plow, the wheel, writing, and
  numbers.

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Major Agricultural Hearths
Mesopotamia (6,500 B.C.)
Huang He (4,500 B.C.)
Indus (4,700 B.C.)
Ganges (4,700 B.C.)
Nile (5,000 B.C.)
Irrigated agriculture Collective
effort Governments
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3. The Agricultural Revolution

• Change of lifestyles
• Population went from nomadic to sedentary
  lifestyle.
• Created private property, tools and the
  accumulation of wealth.
• Subsequently the creation of the state.
• By 1500, 20 of the world was composed of
  statehoods.
• Agricultural surpluses
• Farming allowed greater population densities and
  the generation of an agricultural surplus.
• A growing share of the population was able to
  engage in non-agricultural activities.
• Induced all sorts of innovations such as
  irrigation, craftsmanship, and metallurgy.

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3. The Agricultural Revolution

• Specialization
• Development of trade.
• Creation of the first cities.
• Stratification
• An elite gained control of surplus resources and
  defended their position with arms.
• Centralization of power and resources
• Led to the development of the state.
• The rich and powerful developed the institutions
  of the state to further consolidate their gains.

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3. The Agricultural Revolution

• The Feudal society
• A system of bonds and obligations
• Royalties from the serf to the lord of a share of
  the agricultural production.
• Highly constraining system
• Administrative/legal (Lord) and religious
  (Church) control.
• Fixation of the productive forces (tools and
  labor) in agricultural production.
• Economy
• Low levels of productivity (subsistence level).
• Profits taken away by the lord/church, inhibiting
  any increases in agricultural productivity.
• 80 to 90 of the population was in agriculture
  while the other share were artisans and
  landowners.
• Different types of feudal societies (China,
  Japan, Europe).

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3. The Agricultural Revolution

• Demographic consequences
• High birth rates
• A feudal society required large families.
• Help agricultural activities that were very labor
  intensive.
• No contraceptives.
• High death rates
• Wars between competing city-states.
• Frequent disruption of food supplies.
• Medicine almost non-existent.
• Epidemics One famous plague, the Black Death,
  reduced European population by 25 between 1346
  and 1348.
• Life expectancy around 30-35 years.
• The population growth rate remained low.
• Small cities of at most 25,000 people.

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4. The Industrial Revolution

• Nature
• Started at the end of the eighteenth century
  (1750-1780).
• Transformations first observed in England.
• Demographic transition of the population
• Fast growth rate.
• This demographic theory is discussed in a
  subsequent chapter.
• Economic and social transformations.
• Technological innovations
• Use of new materials (steel, iron, chemicals).
• Usage of thermal energy to produce mechanical
  energy.
• Substitution of machines to human and animal
  labor.
• Production (factory).
• Transportation (rail).
• Health (medicine).

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4. The Industrial Revolution

• Agriculture
• Less agricultural population.
• Growth of the production of food.
• Mechanization and fertilizers.
• Scientific and commercial agriculture.
• Declining food prices.
• Social changes
• Significant urbanization.
• Creation of a labor class.
• Work ethics, savings and entrepreneurship.
• Migration from the countryside to cities
• By 1870 more of the half of the population of the
  first industrial nations was no longer in the
  agricultural sector.

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Share of the Population in Agriculture, 1820-1910
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European Control of the World, 1500-1950
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Major Phases of Demographic Change

• Agricultural Revolution
• Feudal society.
• Wealth from agriculture and land ownership.
• Slow demographic growth.
• Industrial Revolution
• Wage labor society.
• Wealth from industry and capital ownership.
• Fast demographic growth.
• Post-Industrial Revolution
• Information society.
• Wealth from technological development.
• Slow demographic growth.

Agricultural Revolution
12,000 years
Industrial Revolution
200 years
Post-Industrial Revolution
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Major Phases of Socioeconomic Change
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B. Resources

• 1. Types of Resources
• What are the major types of resources and what do
  they imply?
• 2. The Renewable / Non-Renewable Dichotomy
• What is the difference between a renewable and a
  non-renewable resource?
• 3. Resources, Technology and Society
• In which way technology influences the quantity,
  quality and availability of resources?
• Are resources a social product?
• 4. Resource Growth and Decline
• How can resources be created and destroyed?

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1. Types of Resources

• Context
• A resource is something held in reserve that can
  be used for a purpose.
• Three major categories of resources.
• Natural resources
• Derived from physiographical conditions.
• Economic resources
• Derived from human activities.
• Geographical resources
• Derived by spatial characteristics.

Natural
Minerals
Biological resources
Endowments
Geographical
Location
Human
Capital
Economic
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1. Types of Resources
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Value of a 2006 100 Dollar, 1800 - 2006
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2. The Renewable / Non-renewable Dichotomy

• Context
• Resources do not have a purpose if they are not
  used.
• Consumption of resources leads to a dichotomy
• Renewable resources and non-renewable resources.
• Resources are unevenly used
• US 5 of the population and 40 of the worlds
  consumption.
• 1/3 third of the worlds resources have already
  been used up.
• Non-renewable resources
• Oil and minerals.
• Formed over a time framework involving geologic
  time.
• Petroleum
• Extracted at a rate faster than being
  replenished.
• At some point their supply will be exhausted.
• Oil production will peak around 2005-2010 and
  drop.

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World Annual Oil Production (1900-2006) and Peak
Oil (2010)
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World Mineral Reserves (years of production
left), 1998
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2. The Renewable / Non-renewable Dichotomy

• Renewable resources
• Replenishment can occur on a human time scale
• Years, decades, centuries.
• Include soils, forests, fish, animal herds, etc.
• Soils
• Generally considered to be a renewable resource.
• Takes a minimum of 200 years for soils to develop
  to the point where they can support a permanent
  vegetative cover.
• 1000 years before a soil can be considered as
  mature, meaning it has a fully developed profile.
• Erosion is extremely important because growing
  populations do not provide adequate time for
  soils to regenerate fully.

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2. The Renewable / Non-renewable Dichotomy

• Forests
• In some areas, the rates of deforestation far
  surpass the natural ability of the forest to
  regenerate.
• In these situations, positive human intervention
  is needed to maintain the renewability of the
  resource.
• Water
• Human habitation has extended over ever more
  marginal lands.
• Irrigation has increased in many dry areas.
• Depletion of underground aquifers and a lowering
  of the water table threatens the sustainability
  of the system.

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3. Resources, Technology and Society

• Technology
• Concept of resource is tied to
• Technology.
• Technological change.
• Culture controlling the technology.
• Definition
• Processes according to which tools and machines
  are constructed.
• Insure a control of the physical environment.
• Comes from the Greek word teckne, which means
  manual expertise, and logia, which means a field
  of knowledge
• Therefore technology means the control, or the
  science, of manual expertise.
• The more it is developed, the further the control
  and the transformation of matter is possible.

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3. Resources, Technology and Society

• Nuance
• Technique rests mainly on a way to make use of
  experience.
• Technology requires the systematic usage of
  science and especially of the scientific method.
• Relationship between science, technology and
  production (the market).
• Scientific research helps discover or improve a
  technology.
• Modifies the production while creating new goods
  available or permitting a more efficient way to
  produce.

Science
Comprehension of the laws of physical systems.
Research
Technology
Level of technical expertise over matter.
Development
Production
Practical use of a level of technical expertise.
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US Music Unit Sales, 1975-2005
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3. Resources, Technology and Society

• Resources and culture
• A society expresses a set of needs.
• An oil field would be useless to an agricultural
  society but of prime importance for an industrial
  society.
• Some cultures favor specific sectors of activity.
• In other cultures, resources are strictly
  controlled.
• Consumerism
• Culture can also illustrate a level of resource
  consumption
• American consumerism.
• A culture of debt.
• Consumption of resources part of social ideals.
• Mass consumption requires mass production.
• North America and Western Europe account for 12
  of the global population but account for 60 of
  the consumption.

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Under construction
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Annual Resource Consumption per Person, 2001-2002
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Consumer Spending and Population, by Region, 2000
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Global Share of Private Consumption, 1997
(billion)
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3. Resources, Technology and Society

• The Resource Curse
• Paradox
• Many resource-rich countries have the poorest
  population.
• Prone to authoritarian rule, slow growth,
  corruption and conflict.
• Resources used to finance armies, corruption and
  patronage.
• Under investment in infrastructures, utilities,
  health and education.
• Civil wars to gain control of resources.
• Inverse relationship between natural resources
  and democracy.

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4. Resources Growth and Decline

• Context
• A resource is not a fixed quantity.
• Since the industrial revolution the quantity of
  resources have been considerably expanded.
• Economic development
• A resource is useless if there is no demand for
  it.
• Each percentage of population growth requires
  about 3 of economic growth for support.
• Economic development expands the demand for
  resources and their exploitation
• The development of the automobile industry has
  expanded several types of resources, notably oil
  and steel.
• The current boom in the computer industry has
  expanded exponentially information-related
  resources.

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World Economic Output, 1965-2004
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Technology and Resource Quality

• Technological development
• Relationships between resources and technology.
• Enables the exploitation of resources that were
  not available.
• Access to new types of resources
• Current mining technology enables to have access
  to mineral resources that were unavailable
  before.
• Notably in terms of depth and concentrations.
• Advances in agricultural techniques have led to
  increased yields.
• Access to lower quality resources
• Lower quality resources are generally more
  polluting.

High quality resources
Technology
Quality
Medium quality resources
Low quality resources
Availability
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Concentration of Copper Needed to be Economically
Mined, 1880-2000 (in )
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4. Resources Growth and Decline

• Reserves and total resources
• Reserves
• Known (with a reasonable certainty) quantity and
  quality of resources that can be economically
  recovered.
• Total resources
• Potential amount of resources that can be
  exploited given sufficient levels of economic and
  technological development.
• Some resources may be potentially unrecoverable.
• In a closed world, the amount of material
  resources is finite.

This is what you have, no less, no more
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Reserves and Total Resources
Potentially Unrecoverable
Sub-economic
Price / Technology
Total Resources
Cost of Recovery
Available Resources
Reserves (Identified and recoverable)
Exploration
Unidentified
Uncertainty
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4. Resources Growth and Decline

• Resource loss due to demand
• Drops in demand
• Often lead to a related drop in the quantity of
  resources.
• Very few people are still using horses as a mean
  of transportation.
• Synthetic rubber has replaced natural rubber
  grown in rubber trees (for the most part).
• Integrated circuits have replaced transistors
  which have replaced vacuum valves.
• Business cycles (recessionary periods) often
  involve a drop in demand.
• Agricultural products
• Variations in prices (and thus demand) tend to be
  accompanied by a related drop of the production
  and of cultivated surfaces.

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4. Resources Growth and Decline

• Resource loss due to usage and non-usage
• Some types of resources are lost each time they
  are used.
• Oil burning and food consumption decrease
  available petroleum and agricultural resources.
• Agricultural resources
• Takes much less time to be replenished.
• Often on a yearly basis.
• Oil
• Can take several millions of years.
• Resources can also be lost if they are not used
• Lumber and food.
• Fresh water is lost to the oceans.
• Resources can be wasted.

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Municipal Waste in the United States, 1997 ()
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4. Resources Growth and Decline

• Economic systems and resources
• Market economies tend to use resources more
  efficiently.
• Incentives for better use of existing resources
  and finding new resources.
• Centrally-planned and socialists economies tend
  to waste resources.
• Resource loss due to destruction
• Natural and man causes can destroy resources.
• Forest fires reduce the quantity of lumber.
• Weather hazards.
• Pollution reduces natural resources such as
  water.
• Conflicts have destroyed huge quantities of
  resources, material and human alike, throughout
  history.

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C The Environment

• 1. The Environmental System
• What is the environment and what are the
  interactions between its components?
• 2. The Worlds Climate
• What describe and explains the variations in
  precipitation and temperature?

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1. The Environmental System

• Concept
• The environment can be conceived as a system.
• Set of interactions between the elements of the
  biosphere.
• Includes the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the
  lithosphere and the ecosphere.

Atmosphere
Ecosphere
Hydrosphere
Lithosphere
Biosphere
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1. The Environmental System
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2. The Worlds Climate

• Nature
• Climate is mostly composed of precipitation and
  temperature.
• Classified according to similar attributes.
• The main impact of climate on population and
  resources is related to its influence on food
  production and on comfort.
• In extreme climatic conditions (hot or cold),
  large efforts must be made to support human life.
• Precipitation
• Involves the amount of water, in all its forms
  (rain, snow, hail, fog, condensation), that falls
  on the ground.
• Influenced by many factors such as latitude, wind
  direction and altitude.

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2. The Worlds Climate

• Convectional rainfall
• Mostly during the summer, almost everyday around
  the tropics.
• Hot temperature causes rapid evaporation.
• As the humid air climbs, it cools and causes
  torrential rain falls.
• Orographic rainfall
• Mostly during the monsoons.
• High mountain ranges force humid air masses to
  climb.
• It cools and rain falls.
• Highest levels of precipitation are on the Indian
  side of the Himalayas (more than 30 feet of
  precipitation per year).

Condensation
Wind
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Mean Annual Precipitation
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2. The Worlds Climate

• Temperature
• Number of days without freezing.
• Important component of temperature.
• Rough indication of the growing season.
• For tropical regions, this figure is zero.
• Vegetation grows year long, while for middle
  latitudes, winter can be more or less long.
• Latitude, altitude and water masses and major
  factors influencing temperature.

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Average Insolation by Month and by Latitude