Environmental Problems Human Population Growth World population didnt

Environmental Problems Human Population Growth World population didn’t hit 1 Billion until around 1850.

HUMAN OVERPOPULATION ? Which parts of the world have the highest rate of population growth? How many people can the Earth support before it reaches its carrying capacity?

HUMAN OVERPOPULATION Population density per square kilometer

HUMAN OVERPOPULATION What is it? (Causes) • Skyrocketing world population in the last 150 years • Due to industrial revolution, advances in medicine, food, and technology • Simply caused by a higher Birth Rate than Death Rate Why do we care? (Effects) • Population cannot grow indefinitely (carrying capacity) • Larger population more pollution, scarcity of resources Solutions • • Education Fight poverty ZPG = Zero Population Growth (Birth Rate = Death Rate) Family Planning Activity with China, India & Kenya

HUMAN OVERPOPULATION Links to Check Out www. census. gov/main/www/popclock. html www. breathingearth. net www. pbs. org/wgbh/nova/worldbalance/

China – One-Child Rule • Started in 1970 s (concerns of famine) • The rule - (more lax today) urban couples should have only one child. Rural couples may have two or more children • Families that violate the rule may face mandatory abortions and severe financial penalties, • Single-child couples are given better child care, preferential housing assignments, and cash bonuses. • The policy has generally worked, fertility rates have fallen from an average of more than 5 children per woman to about 2 children per woman.

India • India's population has more than doubled since the 1950 s, and projections predict India will overtake China's position as most populous nation by 2050. • However, the total fertility rate has declined by more than 40 percent since the 1960 s, today the average number of children per woman is around 3. • Current Policy focuses on the advancement of women economically, academically, and socially to promote smaller families. • Also working to counter favoritism for boys, an ingrained tradition that drives couples to have more children. • Major change from the Old Policy of the 1970 s - when the government implemented forced sterilizations in the nation's poorest regions.

Kenya • 1 st country in sub-Saharan Africa to recognize population growth as a problem to economic growth • In the 1960 s it was the 1 st country in Africa to begin developing a national family-planning policy. • The policy calls for matching population size with available resources, yet leaves decisions on family size up to individual families. (The government creates the strategies, and promotion of the message is left to local health-care offices. ) • The average number of children per woman has dropped from 8 in the 1980 s to around 4. • Contraceptive use has grown from 7% in 1978 to over 30% today. The AIDS epidemic affecting 10% of the populations is a significant factor in contraceptive use and lower fertility rate.