1. Unit 1: Our Environment

2. OVERALL  Explain how population growth affects the sustainability of global ecosystems; SPECIFIC  explain how growth in population and economic activity around the world increases pressure on natural resources and natural systems (e.g., the effects of urbanization and loss of agricultural land on food production)

3.  Intro  The Population-Development Debate  Factors Affecting Human Population Change  The Response to 7 Billion People on the Planet – “Population 7 Billion” (National Geographic)  But Should We Worry? – “Don’t Panic: The Truth About Population” – Dr. Hans Rosling  Demographic Change

4.  The coinciding of human population growth and environmental damage has led scientists to claim that the human population issue is the environmental issue.  The worry about human population has been around for a long time.  In 1798 English clergyman, politician and historian Thomas Malthus worried that our capability to multiply would exceed our resources.

5.  Malthus believed that we had to find a humane way to curb the human population or disease, famine or warfare would do the job.  Malthus’ prediction hasn’t come true, as the human population has increased sevenfold since his time.  Contemporary writers argue that the link between human population and environmental degradation is too simple.

6.  Emphasis on human population numbers allowed developed countries to blame developing countries for environmental degradation, while they fail to examine what they have done wrong.  However population growth coupled with technological development has resulted in the depletion and degradation of resources.  The question being asked if this happens because of the rise in human population or because of the way humans use their environment?

7.  The answer may be that development practices (technological, economic and social) may degrade, enhance or maintain environmental attributes.  This part of unit one will look at:  the fundamental concepts about human population and factors affecting population  Examine the debate about population, environment and development  Debates about human development  Measures of well-being that suggest there are different cause and effects of using the Earth’s resources.

8.  About 78 million people are added to the Earth’s population every year.  About 90% of these are born in developing nations (Africa, Asia and Latin America).  From 1995 to 2000 the average annual population growth in these regions was about 1.4% while it was.25% in Canada, America and Japan.  However, Canada, America and Japan consume greater resources than the developing regions combined.

9.  In order to achieve a stable human population and stable consumption to help sustainable development, population dynamics have been to understood.

10.  Historical growth of the human population is described four major stages:  Hunters and gatherers  Early pre-industrial agriculture  The machine age (Industrial Revolution)  The Modern era

11.  Hunters and Gatherers  Time Period: From the first human on earth to the beginning of agriculture  Human Density: About 1 person per 130 – 260 KM 2 in most habitable areas  Population: as low as 250 000 to less than a few million  Average Rate of Growth: average annual increase was 0.00011% per year

12.  Early, Preindustrial Agriculture  Time Period: 9000/6000 BCE – 16 Century CE  Human Density: Domestication of plants and animals, rise of settled villages led to a human density of 1 or 2 people per KM 2  Population: 100 million by 0 CE and 1 and 500 million by 1600 CE  Average Rate of Growth: average annual increase was.03%

13.  The Machine Age (Industrial Revolution)  Time Period: 1600 CE in Europe – 1950’s in the Western world  Human Density: Transition from agricultural societies to literate societies; better sanitation led to decreased death rate; urban density increased  Population: 900 million in 1800 and 3 billion by 1960  Average Rate of Growth: by 1600:.1% annually, increasing.01% every 50 years until 1950

14.  The Modern Era  Time Period: 1950s onwards  Human Density: Increased urbanization  Population: 7 billion+  Average Rate of Growth: 2.1% annually between 1965 and 1970; declining to 1.7% and 1.8% in the 1980s and 1990s; HIV/AIDS pandemic health threat.

15.  The population growth of the modern era has some worried. When the population reached 7 billion, alarm bells went off.

16.  As the National Geographic article suggested, the problem may not be population explosion, but how we use our resources.  Dr. Han’s Rosling agrees in his documentary “Don’t Panic”