BLG 181 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Carbon Footprint, Water Pollution, Exponential Growth
10 Jan 2017
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Document Summary
Growth started very low, has become exponential in recent ~300 years. Population structure: the distribution of people across the planet; uneven. Demographic transition: began with high birth and death rates, death decreased with the influx of technology, birth rate remained high (lag, birth rate must eventually come down to accommodate the low death rate. Carrying capacity: net primary production: total plant growth, earth could hold 20 billion humans if humans (and only humans) ate only plants, resources are limited. Water, energy, non-renewable resources, availability of habitat for use, pollution, availability of habitat for other species, lots of waste, minimum standard living conditions. If everyone lived like north americans live, the earth would collapse, unable to provide all the resources for all the people. We li(cid:448)e the (cid:449)a(cid:455) (cid:449)e do at other peoples" e(cid:454)pe(cid:374)se: logistic curve. Lag: beginning period, before population reaches sufficient numbers and stability for exponential growth.
