Bryant Hernandez
Chapter 6 Review & Critical Thinking
1.) Review the Key Questions and Concepts for this chapter on p. 126. Summarize the story of
population growth in China and the Chinese government’s efforts to regulate it (Core Case
Study).
A.) Chinas population was growing so immensely in such a short amount of time that most of
the individuals there were at risk of starving, due to the mass consumption of resources. To fix
this, China implemented and promote one-child families to reduce the average size of families.
2.) List three factors that account for the rapid growth of the world’s human population over the
past 200 years. About how many people are added to the world’s population each
year? Explain how this growth is unevenly distributed. What five countries had the largest
numbers of people in 2010? How many of us are likely to be on the planet in 2050? What are
demographers? Give three reasons why it is difficult for them to project population changes.
A.) Technological advances have led humans to survive and live in almost all types of climates,
giving humans the chance to expand across habitats we couldn’t before. We have also been
able to mass produce food that account for the exponential increase in population. New
medicines have kept the elderly from passing away, decreasing the average death rate.
B.) About 83 million
C.) Most of the growth occurs in less-developed countries.
D.) The countries with the most people are China, India, The United States, Indonesia, and
Brazil.
E.) About 9.5 billion people in 2050
F.) Demographers are experts that analyze and make predictions about populations.
G.) Demographers must deal with inaccurate population estimates, somehow predict future
fertility trends and deal with incorrect data from different sources.
3.) What is the cultural carrying capacity? Describe the debate over whether and how long the
human population can keep growing. Describe eight ways in which we have used technology
to alter nature to meet our growing needs and wants.
A.) Cultural carrying capacity is the best level that would permit most people to live in
reasonable comfort and freedom without damaging the planet.
B.) The debate involves the ecological footprint of over-extraction of resources and the
technological advances to prolong survivability.
C.) 1.) Pesticides
2.) Genetically modified Organisms
3.) Elimination of natural predators
4.) Introduction of non-native predators
5.) Using resources faster than they can replenish
6.) Using fossil fuels as a primary source of energy
7.) Disrupting energy flow
8.) Disrupting chemical cycling
4.) Distinguish between crude birth rate and crude death rate. List four variables that affect the
population change of an area and write an equation showing how they are related.
A.) The crude birth rate is the number of live births per 1,000 people in a population each year.
The crude death rate is the number of deaths per 1,000 people in a population each year
B.) Population change = (births + immigration) - (deaths + emigration)
5.) What is fertility rate? Distinguish between replacement-level fertility rate and total fertility
rate (TFR). Explain why reaching the replacement-level fertility rate will not stop global
population growth until about 50 years have passed (assuming that death rates do not rise).
Describe what has happened since 1950 to total fertility rates in the world, in China, and in
the United States.
A.) Fertility rate is the number of children born to a woman during her lifetime.
B.) Replacement-level fertility rate is the average number of children that couples in a
population must have to replace themselves, total fertility rate is the average number of
children born to women in a population during their reproductive years.
C.) Reaching the replacement-level fertility does not stop population growth since most of the
parents will still be alive.
D.) The average TFR dropped from 2.8 to 1.6 children per woman in more-developed countries
and from 6.2 to 2.8 in less-developed countries. China’s strict one-child population policy
lowered the country’s total fertility rate from 5.7 to 1.6. And in the United States, the
average TFR was 3.7 children per woman.
6.) Describe population growth in the United States and explain why it is high compared to those
of most other more-developed countries and China. Is the United States over-populated?
Explain.
A.) The U.S. has high and irregular immigration rates and grew from 76 million in 1900 to 306
million in 2009. In contrast, population growth has slowed in other major developed
countries since 1950, most of which are expected to have declining populations after 2010.
B.) Yes, the United States is overpopulated because with the already high per capita rate of
resource use, each addition to the U. S. population has an enormous environmental impact.
7.) List ten factors that can affect the birth rate and fertility rate of a country. Explain why there is
a bride shortage in China. Define life expectancy and infant mortality rate and explain how
they affect the population size of a country. Why does the United States have a lower life
expectancy and higher infant mortality rate than a number of other countries? What is
migration? Describe immigration into the United States and the issues it raises.
A.) Average age at marriage
Availability of legal abortions
Availability of reliable birth control method
Religious beliefs
Cultural norms
Educational opportunities available for women
Cost of raising and educating children
Child Labor
Urbanization
Patriarchal society
B.) There is a strong preference for male children.
C.) Life expectancy is the average number of years a newborn infant can expect to live, and the
infant mortality rate is the number of babies out of every 1,000 born who die before their
first birthday. A longer life expectancy and a lower infant mortality will increase population.
D.) Adults in the United States have one of the world’s highest obesity rates. Three factors
helped to keep the U.S. infant mortality rate higher than it could be: inadequate health
care for poor women during pregnancy and for their babies after birth, drug addiction
among pregnant women, and a high birth rate among teenagers.
E.) Migration is the movement of people into and out of specific geographic areas.
F.) Legal and illegal immigration account for about 40% of the country’s annual population
growth. Immigrants pay taxes, take low- paying jobs, create jobs and help the United States
succeed in the global economy.
8.) What is the age structure of a population? Explain how it affects population growth and
economic growth. Describe the American Baby Boom and some of the effects it has had on
American culture. What are some problems related to rapid population decline due to an
aging population? How has the AIDS epidemic affected that age structure of some countries in
Africa?
A.) Age structure refers to the number or percentage of males and females in young,
middle, and older age groups.
B.) The American baby boom added 79 million people to the U.S. population
C.) Population has the potential to increase if a large percentage falls in the prereproductive and reproductive categories and decrease if a large percentage falls in the
post-reproductive age. Economic growth may be predicted based on how many
individuals are in a group that would be working and spending money.
D.) Many deaths from AIDS can disrupt a country’s social and economic structure by
removing significant numbers of young adults from its population.
9.) What is the demographic transition and what are its four stages? What factors could hinder
some developing countries from making this transition? What is family planning? Describe the
roles of reducing poverty, elevating the status of women, and family planning in slowing
population growth. Describe India’s efforts to control their population growth.
A.) The demographic transition is a hypothesis explaining population change that occurs as
countries become industrialized and their populations tend to grow more slowly. The
four stages of transition are preindustrial, transitional, industrial, postindustrial.
B.) Factors that can hinder countries from making the demographic transition are rapid
population growth, poverty, and environmental gradation.
C.) Family planning includes educational and clinical services that help couples choose how
many children to have and when to have them.
D.) Many women in the developing world are trapped in poverty by illiteracy, poor health,
and unwanted high fertility. With that in mind, as women are empowered the
population decreases since women tend to have less children if they are educated.
E.) India has tried to control its population growth with only with little success.
10.) What are this chapter’s three big ideas? Describe the relationship between human population
growth, as exemplified in China, and the three principles of sustainability.
A.) The human population is increasing rapidly, the increasing use of resources per person is
expanding the overall human ecological footprint and putting a strain on the earth’s
resources and o We can slow human population growth by reducing poverty and
elevating the status of women.
B.) Human population growth relates to the three principles of sustainability because it has
had detrimental effects on not only biodiversity, but also on the amount of pollution.
We have also been fueled by fossil energy, rather than solar power.
Critical Thinking
1.) Do you think that the problems resulting from China’s one-child policy (Core Case Study) outweigh
the problems of overpopulation that likely would have resulted without some sort of population
growth regulation? Can you think of other ways in which China could try to regulate its population
growth? Explain.
A.) If China had not taken the step that they did, the population increase that would have
developed would’ve been dramatic maybe even catastrophic towards the people and the
environment. Starvation and other inhumane conditions would likely have resulted, which
would have resulted in the over-consumption of resources.
2.) If you could greet a new person every second without taking a break, how many people could you
greet in one day? How many in a year? How many in a lifetime of 80 years? How long would you have
to live to greet (a) all 6.9 billion people on earth at a rate of one every second working around the
clock and (b) the 83 million people added to the world’s population this year?
A.)
B.)
C.)
D.)
E.)
86,400
31,536,000
2,522,880,000
a) 219 years
b) 3 years
3.) Which of the three major environmental worldviews summarized on pp. 24-25 do you believe
underlie the two major positions on whether the world is overpopulated (Science Focus, p. 128)?
A.) The planetary management worldview, which sees no problem with the current population of
the earth, and the environmental wisdom worldview, which is supported by the group that
suggests introducing measures of population control.
4.) Identify a major local, national, or global environmental problem, and describe the role population
growth plays in this problem.
A.) Overfishing is a major environmental problem in the Florida area. The demand for seafood as a
means of providing a form of healthy protein to our diets has led to a non-sustainable situation
where we are over harvesting fish past their maximum yield.
5.) Is it rational for a poor couple in a developing country such as India to have four or five children?
Explain.
A.) It is a trick question. Over there, it is rational for people living in places like India to have four or
five children. This is because they are part of the labor force and will provide old-age security for
their parents as the parent’s age. In theory though, if all Indians had this logic, the population
will strictly increase and perhaps past the tipping point of that country.
6.) Do you believe that the population is too high in: (a) China (Core Case Study), (b) the world (c) your
own country, and (d) the area where you live? Explain.
A.) The population of China is too high simply because economic development is providing the
opportunity for a large portion of this population to expand its ecological footprint.
B.) The population of the world is too high. With all of the environmental degradation that is taking
place and the overconsumption of many of the world’s resources, the population of the world is
already too high.
C.) America’s population is around 325 million, while it’s not a lot compared to China and India, it’s
still a pretty large number. While the population density is pretty low, most people tend to
cluster and live in concentrated areas.
D.) I would say my area is overpopulated. The distance to my school is around 5 minutes without
traffic; however, with traffic the time jumps up to around 20 minutes, and that’s just one
intersection.
7.) Should everyone have the right to have as many children as they want? Explain. Is your belief on
this issue consistent with your environmental worldview?
A.) This is also a trick question, many people would argue that everyone has the right to have as
many children as they want, after all, we have the freedom for that. However, they should
implement a system where rewards will be given to those who have two children or less. This
will motivate future parents to only have two children and hopefully lower the population in the
grand scheme.
8.) Some people believe the most important environmental goal is to sharply reduce the rate of
population growth in less-developed countries, where at least 92 % of the world’s population growth
is expected to occur. Others argue that the most serious environmental problems stem from high
levels of resource consumption per person in more-developed countries, which use 88% of the world’s
resources and have much larger ecological footprints per person than the less-developed countries
do. What is your view on this issue? Explain.
A.) It would need both things to occur simultaneously for the effects to be successful in the long
term. People in developing countries need to sharply reduce their rate of population growth,
and people in more-developed countries need to be aware of their consumption.
9.) Congratulations! You are in charge of the world. Write a summary of your population policy. In the
summary, consider the following: will you enact a program to regulate population growth? In not,
explain your reasoning. If so, describe the program and how you will enact and fund it.
A.) I would enact some sort of population regulation. I would make it so that those who have 2
children or less will receive rewards such as free health care, future college tuition for the
children and higher tax returns. Those who have more than two kids will no get any form of
punishment, however they will not be eligible for the rewards. I would also promote the
education and empowerment of women, availability to free birth control methods, and open up
more job opportunities.
10.) List two questions that you would like to have answered as a result of reading this chapter
A.) If it is statistically proven that there are major consequences for over population, why is the
government not emplacing a policy to regulate it?
B.) Why are we still so fossil fuel dependent?