Population, Urbanization, and
Environment
Demography: the Study of Population
• Fertility- the incident of childbearing in a
country’s population.
• Fecundity- or maximum possible childbearing is
sharply reduced by cultural norms, finances and
personal choice.
• Mortality- Mortality the incidence of death in a
country’s population.
• crude death rate- the number of deaths in a given
year for every thousand people in a population.
• infant mortality rate- the number of deaths
among infants under one year of age for every
thousand births in a given year.
• life expectancy- the average life span of a
country’s population.
• Migration- the movement of people into and out
of a specific territory.
• Population Growth- Fertility, mortality, and
migration all affect the size of a society’s
population.
Health and Theory of Population
• A Major demographic shift began about 1750 as
the world’s population turned upward, reaching
the 1 billion mark by 1800. This milestone was
repeated by 1930—barely a century later—when a
second billion people were added to the planet.
Global population reached 3 billion by 1962 and 4
billion by 1974. The rate of world population has
increase has slowed recently, but our planet passed
the 5 billion mark in 1987 and the 6 billion mark
in late 1999.
Malthusian Theory
• Malthus’ main argument was that our world was
heading towards social chaos. Because population
would tend to increase in geometric progression
(2, 4, 8, 16, 32), whereas food production would
increase in arithmetic progression (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
because farmland is limited.
• Malthus offers an important lesson. Habitable
land, clean water, and fresh air are limited
resources, and presently, greater economic
productivity has taken a heavy toll on the natural
environment. People everywhere should become
aware of the dangers of population increase.
Demographic Transition Theory
• Demographic transition theory- the thesis that
population patterns reflect a society’s level of
technological development.
• Stage 1- have high birth rates because of the
economic value of children and the absence of
birth control.
• Stage 2- the onset of industrialization-brings a
demographic transition as death rates fall because
of greater food supplies and scientific medicine.
• Stage 3- a mature industrial economy—the birth
rate drops, curbing population growth.
• Stage 4- a post-industrial economy—the
demographic transition is complete.
The Evolution of Cities
• Only about 12,000 years ago did our ancestors
begin founding permanent settlements, launching
the first urban revolution.
The First Cities
• Before humans could build permanent settlements,
they had to discover how to domesticate animals
and cultivate crops.
• The emergence of cities, then, led to specialization
and higher living standards.
Preindustrial European cities
• Medieval cities ere very different from today’s
cities. Beneath towering cathedrals, the narrow
and winding streets of London, Brussels, and
Florence teemed with merchants, artisans, priests,
peddlers, jugglers, nobles, and servants.
Industrial European Cities
• As the Middle Ages came to a close, steadily
increasing commerce enriched a new urban middle
class or bourgeoisie. With more and more money,
the Bourgeoisie soon rivaled the heredity nobility.
• By 1750, the Industrial Revolution triggered a
second urban revolution.
The Growth of U.S. Cities
• metropolis- a large city that socially and
economically dominates an urban area.
• suburbs- urban areas beyond the political
boundaries of a city.
Post industrial Sunbelt Cities
• About 1950, cities began to decentralize with the
growth of suburbs and edge cities.
Megalopolis: Regional Cities
• megalopolis- a vast urban region containing a
number of cities and their surrounding suburbs.
Ferdinand Tonnies: Gemeinschaft
and Gesellschaft
• Gemeinschaft-a type of social organization by
which people are closely tied by kinship and
tradition. (loosely meaning community)
• The Gemeinschaft of the rural village joins people
in what amounts to a single primary group.
• Tonnies argued that Gemienshaft is absent in the
modern city. On the contrary urbanization fosters
Gesellschaft.
• Tonnies saw urbanization as the erosion of close,
enduring social relations in favor of the fleeting
and impersonal ties typical of business.
Emil Durkheim: Mechanical and
Organic Solidarity
• Emil Durkheim agreed with much of Tonnies’s
thinking. But Durkheim countered, urbanites do
not lack social bonds; they simply organize social
life differently than rural people.
• Mechanical solidarity- social bonds based on
common sentiments and shared moral values.
This concept emphasizes tradition and is very
close to Gemeinschaft.
• Organic solidarity- social bonds based on
specialization and inter social bonds based on
specialization and interdependence. This concept
which parellels Tonnies’s Gesellschaft reveals an
important difference between the two thinkers.
Both thought the growth of industrial cities
undermined tradition, but Durkheim optimistically
pointed to a new kind of solidarity.
• Where societies had been built on likeness,
Durkheim now saw social life based on difference.
Environment and Society
• Ecology- the study of the interaction of living
organisms and the natural environment.
• The Natural Environment- the Earth’s surface
and atmosphere, including living organisms, air,
water, soil, and other resources necessary to
sustain life.
The Global Dimension
• The study of the natural environment must take a
global perspective. The reason is simple:
Regardless of political divisions between nations,
the planet is a single ecosystem.
• Ecosystem- a system composed of the interaction
of all living organisms and their natural
environment.
Technology
• As humans have developed more powerful
technology, we have increasingly remade the
world as we choose.
• Human control of the natural environment grew
dramatically with the Industrial Revolution.
Muscle power gave way to engines that burn fossil
fuels, coal at first then oil. Such machinery affects
the environment in two ways: by consuming
natural resources and by releasing pollutants into
the atmosphere. Humans also tunnel through
mountains, dam rivers, irrigate deserts, and drill
for oil in the bottom of the ocean.
• Higher living standards increase the problem of
solid waste and pollution.
• Environmental deficit- profound and long-term
harm to the natural environment caused by
humanity’s focus on short-term material affluence.
• First it reminds us that the state of the
environment is a social issue, reflecting choices
people make about how to live.
• Second, it suggests that much environmental
damage –to the air, land, and water—is
unintended.
• Third, in some respects, the environment deficit is
reversible. Inasmuch as societies have created
environmental problems, in other words, societies
can undo many of them.
Culture: Growth and Limits
• Whether we recognize environmental dangers and
decide to do something about them is a cultural
matter. Thus along with technology, culture has
powerful environmental consequences.
The Logic of Growth
• Our nation sets aside specific areas such as
“parks” and “game reserves.” This act indicates
that except for specific areas, people can freely use
natural resources for their own purposes.
• Material comfort– the belief that money and the
things it buys enrich our lives.
The Limits of Growth
• The limits to Growth is that humanity must
implement policies to control the growth of the
population, production and use of resources to
avoid environmental collapse.
• According to the limits of growth thesis, we are
quickly consuming the Earth’s finite resources.
• Limits of growth theorists are also known as neoMalthusian because they share Malthus’s
pessimism about the future.
Solid Waste: The Disposable Society
• The U.S. has become a disposable society. We
consume more products than virtually any other
nation, and many of these products have throw
away packaging.
• Problems:
• 1. Landfills across the country are filling up.
• 2. Material in landfills can pollute groundwater.
• 3. What goes into landfills often stays there,
sometimes for centuries.
Water and Air
• Through the hydrologic cycle, the Earth naturally
recycles water and refreshes the land.
Water Supply
• Some regions of the world especially the tropics,
enjoy a plentiful supply of water. But high
demand coupled with modest reserves, makes
water supply a matter of concern in much of North
America and Asia, where people look to rivers
than rainfall for their water.
• Egyptians must make do with one-sixth the
amount of water per person from the Nile
compared to 1900.
Water Pollution
• In large cities—from Mexico City to Cairo to
Shanghai—many people have no choice but to
drink contaminated water. Infectious diseases
such as typhoid, cholera, and dysentery—all
caused by water borne microorganisms—spread
rapidly. Besides ensuring ample supplies of water,
then we must protect the quality of water.
• Acid rain- made acidic by air pollution that
destroys plant and animal life.
Air Pollution
• Because we are surrounded by air, most people in
the United States are more aware of air pollution
than contaminated water. One of the unexpected
consequences of industrial technology, especially
the factory and the motor vehicle, has been a
decline in air quality.
The Rain Forests
• Rain Forests are regions of dense forestation, most
of which circle the globe close to the equator.
Global Warming
• The rain forests cleanse the atmosphere of carbon
dioxide.
• Much of this Carbon Dioxide is absorbed by
oceans. But plants take in Carbon Dioxide and
expel oxygen. This is why rain forests are vital to
maintaining the chemical balance of the
atmosphere.
• The problem then, is that carbon dioxide
production is rising while the amount of plant life
on the Earth is shrinking.
• Global Warming, a rise in the Earth’s average
temperature caused by an increasing concentration
of carbon dioxide and other gasses in the
atmosphere.
Declining Biodiversity
• On Earth there are as many as 30 million species
of animals, plants and microorganisms. Several
dozen unique species of plants and animals cease
to exist each day, but given the vast number of
living species, why should we be concerned?
• First, our planet’s biodiversity provides a varied
source of human food.
• Biodiversity is needed to feed our planet’s rapidly
increasing population.
• Second, the Earth’s biodiversity is a vital genetic
resource. Medical and pharmaceutical researchers
look to animals and plant biodiversity for new
compounds to cure disease and improve our lives.
• Third, with the loss of any species of life—
whether it is the magnificent California condor,
the famed Chinese panda, the spotted owl, or even
one variety of ant—the beauty and complexity of
our natural environment are diminished.
• Finally unlike pollution, the extinct of any
species is irreversible and final. An important
ethical question then is whether we who live today
have the right to impoverish the world for those
who live in it tomorrow.
ecologically sustainable culture-a way of life
that meets the needs of the present generation
without threatening the environmental legacy
of future generations.
• First- the world needs to bring population
growth under control. The current
population of more than 6 billion is already
straining the natural environment
• Second-the Earth’s biodiversity is a vital
genetic resource. Medical and
pharmaceutical researchers look to animals
and plant biodiversity for new compounds
to cure disease and improve our lives.
• Third, with the loss of any species of life—
whether it is the magnificent California
condor, the famed Chinese panda, the
spotted owl, or even one variety of ant—the
beauty and complexity of our natural
environment are diminished.
• Finally, the extinct of any species is
irreversible and final. An important ethical
question then is whether we who live today
have the right to impoverish the world for
those who live in it tomorrow.