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Environmental Science: A Global Concern, 7/e

William P. Cunningham, University of Minnesota
Mary Ann Cunningham, Vassar College
Barbara Woodworth Saigo, St. Cloud State University

Human Populations

Essay Quiz


1		Summarize the history of human population growth in a few sentences.



2		Explain the concept of the demographic transition.



3		The demographic transition, were it to happen in all societies, would stabilize world human population. There is a disagreement, however, over whether it can happen in developing countries without conscious intervention. a. What are the three contrasting positions on this matter? b. What evidence or argument does each side make in support of its position?



4		What specific beliefs, attitudes, and values put (a) upward and (b) downward pressure on birth rates in human societies?



5		Compare and contrast the views of neo-Malthusians and neo-Marxists on the causes and resolution of the population growth problem.



6		A population’s total growth rate is a function of migration as well as births and deaths. Immigration adds significant numbers of people to the U.S. population, particularly in states such as California, Texas, and Florida. What factors do you think the United States should take into account in establishing immigration policy?



7		Collin Clark is quoted as saying: In industrial countries the benefits of large expanding markets are abundantly clear. The principal problems created by expanding populations are not those of poverty, but of exceptionally rapid increase of wealth and its attractions to migration and unmanageable spread of cities. What ecological concepts does Clark apparently not accept as factual when applied to humans?



8		Worldwide, human numbers have been growing a bit slower than 1.8 percent per year. This means our numbers double about every 40-some years. At that rate, how many years would it take before the entire land surface of the earth were covered by people 1 meter apart? (There’s no need to calculate this; just take a reasoned guess.)



9		One of the central questions of environmental science is the ultimate fate of human population growth. Will we overshoot carrying capacity and die back? Will our current J curve shift to an S curve, stabilizing population at a carrying capacity higher than current population size? Should we stand by and let nature take its course, or should we intervene? You have learned of the significant disagreements on these questions in this chapter. It would be of considerable benefit to be able to identify an unfolding future before it arrives and try to influence events if the projected future were not to our liking. The matter is so serious, in fact, that you have been appointed chair of a United Nations Population Committee. Your task is to: · determine where the growth in human numbers is taking us. · prepare a set of recommended actions to address the issue. Your work will involve sifting through the facts and opinions, premises, and conclusions that abound on this issue. Your first act probably should be to review the steps in critical thinking from an earlier chapter. There may be some lessons from history that can help you. Prepare an outline to: a. identify a concise set of conclusions about where human population increase is taking us, and identify the factual base underlying these conclusions. b. list specific questions you would want answered if you were actually doing this for the UN.



10		In the previous chapter, you learned about the Malthusian growth strategy utilized by many animal species. Why do you suppose it came to be called Malthusian?



11		The pattern of population overshoot followed by catastrophic dieback is not rare among animal populations. Outline an argument to support the contention that, despite our current J-curve growth pattern, human numbers will avoid the classic overshoot and dieback pattern.

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