Pair/Share - What factors can affect fertility rates?

• “Baby Booms”• Education• Access to family planning• Money• Developed/Developing Status• Reproductive rights for

women• Society’s attitudes towards

women’s rights• Infant mortality rates

What role does migration play in population growth?

• They can increase or decrease the rate of growth in a country

Why do people emmigrate from one country to another?

What factors affect life expectancy and death rates?

• Infant Mortality is largely determined by the parents’ access to food, fuel/energy, education, clean water

• Contagious Disease

What are some factors that affect fertility rates in some countries?

• Gender Roles – Women’s rights• Access to healthcare and medicine

Women’s RoleThere is a strong connection between the level of education and financial

independence women have and fertility rates

Developed• More education –

reproductive health and vocational knowledge

• More women at work out of the home

• Children not needed to support the family

• Children not needed to care for aging family

• Average fertility is lower

Developing• Less Education• Less women working out of

the home• Children work (farming,

gathering, family business)- so more children is helpful

• Elderly rely on their children for care and support

• Average Fertility is higher

Question: Why does disease spread so easily in developing countries?

• Today we are going to simulate the spread of disease through a population

• Procedure:– Each person will get a test tube of water to represent their

body– You will make 3 “unprotected exchanges” with another person– To make an exchange each of you will take one dropper of

liquid from your own test tube and pour it into the other person’s test tube

– One person in the population is “infected”– At the end we will test each test-tube to see who caught the

infection

How will we get our population to stabilize?

• Ideally – we would reach replacement rate on a global scale (two parents replace themselves with 2 children)

• This does not factor in that some populations will be shrinking and some will grow – each presenting its own unique challengesPair/Share: Think about the movie – what are

the different challenges for each situation?

What kinds of things do we need to plan for as the population grows?

Can you think of any???

• New schools• New facilities to care for elderly• New Roads• Increased capacity for electrical usage• Housing• Medical Care• Economy

What are some major environmental implications of over-population?

1. Resource depletion2. Access to resources3. Habitat destruction4. Habitat fragmentation5. Increased Pollution6. Endangerment to different species of plants and animals7. Public health issues – Contagious Disease8. Shortage of Energy resources9. Acceleration of climate change10. Not enough space to build housing11. Not enough space to grow food12. Not enough forest land13. Access to clean water14. Political Conflict

Resource Depletion

• What resources do we need?• How do we divide them up among so many

people?• What happens when we run out?• Some are renewable – but are we taking

measures to renew them?• Are we planning ahead to find new resources?

Access to Resources

• Growing gap between wealthy and poor• Who decides who gets access?• What happens to people without access to

resources?

DEVELOPED DEVELOPING

Population ~1.1 billion ~7.1 billion% Global Energy

Consumption87 13

Habitat Destruction

• What happens to the organisms who live in the forests?

• The coral reefs?• The grasslands?• The coastal wetlands?• What happens to us when those ecosystems

are no longer available and can no longer provide us with resources?

Habitat Fragmentation• What happens to ecosystems when we carved

them up by building roads?• What happens to ecosystems when we build a

housing development in the middle?• What happens to migratory animals when we

interfere with their migratory patterns?

Increased Pollution• More people means….• More cars producing Nitrous Oxides and Carbon Monoxides• More smog• More factories making Nitrous-oxides and Sulfur-oxides• More fertilizer run-off• More leaching of toxins into our drinking water• More mercury from factories entering the food chain• More Pesticides• More smoke and particulate matter• More energy needed resulting in more burning of fossil fuels• More products being used that contain Volatile Organic

Compounds

Endangered Species

• Can they compete with us?• Unless we decide to protect them and their

habitats – who will?• Do other places have laws to protect living

things like the U.S.?

Public Health

• Pollution of air and water affects health• More people means more ways to carry and

transmit disease• Wastewater treatment

Shortage of Energy Resources• Fossil Fuels are limited and non-renewable• Fossil fuels pollute and contribute to climate

change• We are coming to the end of our fossil fuel sources• We have increasing demands for electricity • Do we have a back-up plan?

Acceleration of Climate Change• More people means…• More cars and factories producing Carbon Dioxide• More Farms and Landfills producing methane• More methane and Carbon Dioxide speeds up climate change• What do other organisms do when the climate changes?• How do we cope with increased storms/tornadoes and

hurricanes caused by climate change?• What will we do when sea levels rise and our coastal cities are

submerged?• What happens when the food sources and natural resources

we rely on are no longer available because of climate change?

Not enough space to build housing

• Everybody has to live somewhere…• But not everywhere is habitable…• Where will we go?• If we use the land to build houses…what can’t

we use the land for?

Not enough space to grow food

• Everybody needs to eat…• But not everywhere can provide food

(farming/ raising animals)…• If we use the land to build houses…what can’t

we use the land for?

Not enough forest land

• Forests absorb carbon dioxide, provide valuable timber and are the source of our paper (and paper products)

• Maintaining forest lands means that we can’t use it for housing or food production

• Once we cut down a forest – it can’t really be regrown

Access to clean water

• Everybody needs drinking water – but not all water is suitable or accessible for drinking

• Clean water leads to good hygiene which can prevent diseases

• What happens when we don’t have enough water?

Political Conflict

• When people’s needs/wants are met – conflict occurs

• With more people – it is more likely that needs and wants will not be met

• Issues of needs and wants are complicated – how do we negotiate with people who have the resources we need?

• What happens when people take too much?• What happens when people have too little?