Name: __________________________________
Population and Human Environment Interactions
Source 1
1. Global populations are:
A. Increasing
B. Decreasing
C. Remaining constant
D. A and C
2. What is the current world population?
A. 12 billion
C. 9 billion
B. 6.5 million
D. 7 billion
3. What happened 10-12 thousand years ago that led to a gradual increase in population?
A. The Industrial Revolution
C. The creation of man in the stone age
B. The transition from hunting and
D. The birth of Jesus Christ
gathering to farming and the
domestication of animals
Source 2
4. Worldwide populations are growing but the population of ________________________
countries are ______________________ more rapidly than populations in more
developed countries.
5. Which of the following statements is most likely true.
A. More developed countries have higher death rates
B. Less Developed countries have higher birth rates
C. More developed countries populations are remaining relatively constant
D. Both B and C
Source 3
6. Identify 3 factors that have improved life for humans
7. It took ___________ years to go from 1 billion to 2 billion people.
8. It took ___________ years to go from 5 billion to 6 billion people
Name: __________________________________
Source 4
9. Place the following countries in order from largest to smallest: India, Indonesia, Mexico,
Nigeria, Japan, Brazil, China, Russia and The United States.
Smallest
Largest
Source 5
10. Identify the continent with the highest population growth rate.
A. South America
C. Africa
B. Europe
D. North America
11. Which population pyramid is likely to represent the country with the highest population
growth rate?
A
B
Source 6
12. Summarize source 6.
Source 7
13. This image is NOT an example of:
A. Humans using technology to solve problems
B. A renewable source of energy
C. Solar energy
D. Green energy
C
Name: __________________________________
Source 8
14. The Amazon Rainforest located in:
I.
Brazil
II.
Venezuela
III.
Columbia
IV.
Peru
V.
Bolivia
These countries are all located on what continent? _________________________________
15. Identify 3 causes and 3 effects of deforestation in The Amazon. These effects can be
positive or negative
Causes
Effects
Source 9
16. Which of the following are possible effects of coastal flooding?
I.
A decrease in rice production and possible famine
II.
The movement of people to coastal regions
III.
Millions living in coastal regions will be displaced
A. I only
C. III only
B. I and II
D. I and III
Source 10
17. Explain what has led to China’s pollution problem.
Name: __________________________________
Source 11
18. Describe one positive effect of building dams in Cambodia.
19. Describe one negative effects of building dams in Cambodia.
Name: __________________________________
There are 2 main theories on population growth. Read through both carefully and answer the
questions that follow.
Theory 1
Theory 2
In 1798, the British parson Thomas Malthus published the first edition of a book titled An Essay
on the Principle of Population that was to become highly influential in the debate over human
population. He along with many others predicted that the world was sitting on a "population
bomb," and that without drastic action there would be widespread famines and a collapse of
industrial society (Ehrlich 1971, Meadows et al. 1972). This was because the population was
growing exponentially while food supplies were growing at a constant rate.
Imagine, for example, if we have one woman in our first generation. If she has two daughters,
then our population grows to 3. If each of them has two daughters, our population is now 7.
Even if the original woman dies before her great-grandchildren are born, the population size
will still grow to 14. No matter how big the food supply got, the ever growing population would
increase too quickly.
Opposed to Malthus are thinkers known as cornucopians. According to cornucopians, human
ingenuity can overcome any natural constraint, and thus human well-being will continue to
increase as we find new technologies for using our resources (Simon 1998).
For example, in 10,000 BCE humans invented farming and agriculture. Since then technology
has continued to improve. Other technology invented during the Industrial Revolution has
improved transportation, manufacturing and other technology that allowed humans to
continue to improving agricultural output and increase living standards. Today, people around
the world use technology to improve their daily lives from the use of clean water, new sources
of energy, the Internet, air conditioning, the automobile and modern medicine.
Place Theory 1 and Theory 2 on the spectrum below.
100% Agree
100% Disagree
Create an argument to agree with or challenge the following statement. Use at least 2 pieces of
evidence from the documents you have analyzed.
“The world is sitting on a population bomb and eventually there will be widespread famines
and a collapse of society as we know it.”