Population Demographics and Human Impact Objectives: 1. Become familiar with standard criteria for characterizing human populations. 2. Explore various factors that may contribute to population growth potential. 3. Consider relationships between economic, population, and environmental factors and their implications globally. Introduction: Humans have an impact on their environments greater than the impact of any other single species. How and why populations grow, the distribution of these populations spatially, and the impact of individuals in different societies or locations are all important topics in environmental science. Human impact can be characterized by the equation: Impact = P * A * T * S where P is Population number, A is the level of Affluence of the population, T is the extent to which the Technology used is environmentally friendly or destructive, and S is the sensitivity of the environment. Because affluence (and the corresponding level of consumption) is so important in the impact equation, the human impact problem cannot be addressed without considering consumption as well as population growth. In this lab, you will evaluate population characteristics, measures of affluence and technology, to create a description of environmental impact in 4 countries. The spreadsheet attached to this lab contains population and other data for most of the countries of the world. These statistics are summarized from two sources: The United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Report 2001 (www.undp.org/hdr2001) specifically the tables from the Human Development Index and The World Resources Institute EarthTrends information tables (earthtrends.wri.org) In the lab you will have copies of photographs from the book: Material World: A Global Portrait, by Peter Menzel. Compare the pictures for the four countries, and review the table of statistics for these countries and their representative families. Some of the statistics used to characterize population changes include: Crude birthrate (births/1,000 population) Crude deathrate (deaths/1,000 population) Total fertility rate (number of children born per woman) Infant mortality (number of deaths before the first birthday /1,000 live births) Population growth rate (%growth /year) Population doubling time (number of years to achieve doubling) Age structure of the population Some of the characteristics that could be used to evaluate affluence: Adult literacy Gross Domestic Product per capita (a measure similar to GNP) Average annual salary Percent unemployment or underemployment Calorie intake per capita Percentage of calories from meat Automobile ownership per capita Television, radio, or telephone ownership per capita Energy consumption per capita Proportion of energy consumption from traditional fuel sources (wood, dung, etc.) Some of the characteristics that could be used to evaluate an environmental aspect of technology (there are many others) Electricity use per capita or per unit of GDP Levels of air pollutants Use of alternative energy sources Energy efficiency of automobile fleet Energy efficiency of industrial processes Percentage of land in preserves Percentage of species endangered/threatened Degree of erosion of farmland Ratification of international environmental treaties Existence (and enforcement) of national environmental legislation Deliverables: 1. One page that describes the human impact in these four countries in terms of population, affluence, technology, and sensitivity. Your answer may be an essay, a table of information, a chart or concept map. If you write an essay, it should be single spaced within paragraphs, double spaced between paragraphs. You should consider the photographs and the population data spreadsheet in your response. 2. What differences did you notice about your reaction to the information in the population spreadsheet versus the Material World photos? 3. If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing in each of these four countries to reduce the human impact in the country, what would you change and why? Family Statistics for the Four Countries Mali 11 Haiti 6 Thailand 5 U.S. 4 Square feet of dwelling per family member Per capita income 90 54 145 400 $251 $374 $1697 $22,356 Most valued possession bicycle None of any value Motor scooter Bible 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 3+3 stereos 5 2 1 4(in photo) Automobiles 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 motor scooter 0 60 55 30 1,721 42 42 40 20 + housework 2,365 3,609 Sweet potatoes Rice, shrimp paste, bamboo shoots, red pork, cucumbers Meat, potatoes, carrots, onions, green beans, pepper Number of people in household Number of: Radios Telephones Televisions VCRs Bicycles Length of work week per: Father Mother Child Average per capita daily calorie consumption Typical meal: 112 112 2,040 Rice, fish 3 1 computer Source: Peter Menzel, Material World: A Global Family Portrait (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1994), Per capita calorie calories from: http://www.overpopulation.com/faq/Natural_Resources/Food/calorie_consumption_per_capita/north_america.html (accessed January 16, 2002). Several UN organizations use 2,300 calories per day as the minimum level of acceptable nutrition for a healthy population.