Population Sustainability

Clip World population

Definition The capacity of the environment to support a population in the longer term. Environment EconomicSocial Sustainability

Sustainabilty refers to meeting the needs of the present without compromising the needs of the future. It is important to understand the various ways people interact with the environment and recognise that this interaction has consequences. Question: What would have been the environmental impacts of Pre-European Maori compared with modern population settlement in New Zealand today?

What Should We Do? Whatever the cause, it’s clear that it will be difficult at best for earth to sustain its growing population. This is especially true if the population continues to increase, consumption levels remain high, and we fail to increase our available resources to meet basic human needs. What is done now will determine the quality of life, and even the survival of life, for future generations.

Possible Solutions

1) Controlling Population Growth One popular solution to the resource crunch and global population growth is simply to reduce the number of people on earth, usually by slowing the rate of growth. Family planning policies try to reduce the birth rate. Question: What are the positives and negatives of the above policies? Try to name some specific family planning policies.

2) Reducing consumption There are not enough resources to go around at current levels of consumption. Many people believe that rich countries need to cut back on their consumerism and consumption levels. Question: How can you as an individual cut back on your consumption? How can society at large cut back on consumption?

3) Redistribution Resources and income could be chanelled from those who are rich to those who are poor. This would require government intervention. One way to do this would be to use tax policy to increase the price of luxury goods, goods that use scarce resources, or products that have environmental consequences. Question: What do you think of a global carbon tax?

4) Making the pie bigger Humans are very resourceful and constantly developing new technologies to find and make the most of available resources and hence, sustaining the growing population. An example is the 20 th century “Green Revolution”. High yield crops were introduced to countries such as India. Genetically modified crops could increase yields why allowing plants to grow in more difficult environments with minimal water and fertiliser. Question: what are the risks in this? Water desalinisation and improved public transport could also make a difference.

Case Study Asia Region

Introduction Monsoon Asia has about 60% of the world’s population living on just 14% of the world’s land area. It includes some of the most crowded places on Earth. Monsoon Asia includes the two most populated countries on our planet – China (1.3 billion) and India (1 billion). Together these two countries account for 36% of the world’s total population. Task: Complete a map of the Monsoon Asia countries.

The green revolution How India has tried to sustain its population long term. TASK: Complete questions 1a,b,c,d and 2 a,b pg 167 Geog on Edge text.

Clips Revolution reversed Green revolution Green revolution 2

Population control Another example of how India and China have tried to sustain their populations long term. India: complete literacy tasksheet on India’s population control.tasksheet China: complete questions 3 and 4 pg 169 Geography on Edge text.

Clips India population control High price of China One child Policy One child policy One child policy 2