Demography and Population Change Population Urbanization and the

Demography and Population Change

Population, Urbanization and the Environment • How will that population be distributed? • Where is population the highest? • Where is it slowing down? • Where will people live? • To explore these questions, we turn to demography, or the study of populations. Three of the most important components that affect the issues above are fertility, mortality, and migration.

Demography • The fertility rate of a society is a measure noting the number of children born. • Sociologists measure fertility using the crude birthrate (the number of live births per 1, 000 people per year) • Mortality rate is a measure of the number of people who die. The crude death rate is a number derived from the number of deaths per 1, 000 people per year.

Malthusian theory Growth Of population and its impact on Society Three factors would control human population that exceeded the earth’s carrying capacity, or how many people can live in a given area considering the amount of available resources.

Population growth and resources

Malthusian theory • Positive Checks • War • Famine • Disease • Preventive Checks • Birth control • Celibacy

What are negative consequences of population growth? • Food supply and social unrest • What should be the solution Zero population growth

Zero population growth • Paul Ehrlich - extension of Mathusian theory • Food supply will be ok but the environment will play a crucial role in future – scarcity of water and quality of air • A solution – Zero population Growth

Cornucopian Theory • A more optimistic view about future • New invention will balance impact on population – Example – reduction in food shortages

Demographic Transition Theory • 4 stages of population change • Stage 1 – high Fertility and High mortality • Stage 2 – Fertility is high and mortality declines • Stage 3 – Fertility declines and life expectancy keeps on increasing • Stage 4 – Birth and death rates decline – population stability or even decline

Population Composition

Demography • Another key element in studying populations is the movement of people into and out of an area. Migration may take the form of immigration, which describes movement into an area to take up permanent residence, or emigration, which refers to movement out of an area to another place of permanent residence.

The 2014 Child Migration Crisis • Unaccompanied Minors • Refugees • How should we respond? What impact it has on society?

Demography – Urbanization • Urbanization is the study of the social, political, and economic relationships in cities, and someone specializing in urban sociology studies those relationships. In some ways, cities can be microcosms of universal human behavior, while in others they provide a unique environment that yields its own brand of human behavior.

US - Urbanization

Growth of cities and suburbs • Suburbs are the communities surrounding cities, typically close enough for a daily commute in, but far enough away to allow for more space than city living affords • Exurbs, communities that exist outside the ring of suburbs and are typically populated by even wealthier families who want more space and have the resources to lengthen their commute. Together, the suburbs, exurbs, and metropolitan areas all combine to form a metropolis.

Suburban Life - Issues • In the United States, white flight refers to the migration of economically secure white people from racially mixed urban areas and toward the suburbs. • Why do you think this happened? • What is the future of cities?

Gentrification This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

Sustainable Development – Growth of big cities This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

The environment and the society • Relationship between human beings and their built and natural environment • Climate change – long term shifts in the climate – global warming – extreme weather patterns • NASA and NOAA – research on global warming controversies

Harmful effects of human activity on Environment • Global Warming: • Increase in the level of CO 2 along with increase in the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) • Global warming – rising rates of atmospheric CO 2

Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Some description adapted from the Scripps CO 2 Program website, "Keeling Curve Lessons. "

Rising sea levels

Natural resource depletion and damage – Deepwater Horizon – 3 months 50, 000 barrels of petroleum dumped in the gulf This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

• US is world’s leading consumer of oil, burning almost 19 million barrels every day This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC But, we need oil • 72% of that goes to automobile centered transportation

Deforestation and demand for beef

Greenpeace Report • 80% deforestation I Brazilian Amazon due to cattle ranching • Deforestation leads to soil erosion – dessert like landscapes • Extinction of 50, 000 plant and animal species

Global water crisis • Lack of clean and safe drinking water • Water-related diseases among children • Children carry water rather than being in schools This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC