Population Dynamics: Sharp Contractions and Implications for Climate Change, Assignments of Geography

Download Population Dynamics: Sharp Contractions and Implications for Climate Change and more Assignments Geography in PDF only on Docsity! The Population Bust Reading Questions After reading the article, answer the questions below. 1. What are most parts of the world experiencing in terms of population and why is this not “normal or expected”? Most parts of the word are experiencing sharp and sudden contractions in either birth rates or absolute population. This is not normal or expected because the human population has never had population trends shift in reverse like this. 2. Summarize Thomas Malthus’s view on population and describe why he was proved wrong. Malthus’ view on population was that the growing numbers of people were posing a huge threat to social and political stability; soon the planet would not be able to support the population growth and things would crumble into economic social despair. He was proved wrong as soon after his conclusions, the earth started to accommodate the growing population; crop yields rose, improvements in sanitation, and accelerated urbanization encouraged the boom even more. 3. Why did fertility rates fall slower than infant mortality rates starting in the 19th century? Fertility rates fell slower than infant mortality rates starting in the 19th century because of the lag between number of babies had and babies dying. As less babies dies women didn’t try to have as many as possible in hopes of some surviving, but it takes a couple generations for the number of babies being had to even out. 4. Why is Paul Ehrlich referred to as a Neo-Malthusian? Paul Ehrlich is referred to as a neo-malthusian because he applied Malthus’ rhetoric to emerging and more current scenarios. He “ argued that plummeting death rates had created an untenable situation of too many people who could not be fed or housed”. 5. What proved Ehrlich wrong? Ehrlich was proved wrong by a series of agricultural innovations, called the green revolution, that enabled crop yields to grow to meet humankind’s needs. 6. What does the author mean when he states that it is only a matter of time before countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and outliers in South Asia and the Middle East catch up? In other words, why will they also follow the trend of population bust? Outliers will eventually follow the population bust trend because more women are becoming educated and obtaining full liberty, many more children are surviving their childhoods, and more people are moving to urban areas or furthering rural urbanization. 9. Identify two reasons that “demographic collapse could be a bright spot for climate change.” Demographic collapse could be a bright spot for climate change because carbon emissions depend on the demand and need of the people, and it goes to figure that if there are less people, there would be less demand and carbon emissions would decrease. As well, it is shown that older populations put less strain on the environment, so moving towards an older, smaller population would be quite environmentally beneficial. 10. What does the author mean when he says “different countries will reach the breaking point at different times?” Countries will each reach their breaking point based on their ability to bear the cost of slower/negative population growth, with richer countries able to temporarily offset declining numbers. 11. What dangers do current population trends pose to capitalism? Explain. Current population trends pose danger to capitalism because capitalism depends on the creation and consumption of services and goods, a smaller & older population are not able to offer as high rates of production as well as consuming less goods overall.