Midterm Study Guide

Session 1: Geography and the seven billion people question Population numbers exponentially increased since year 1 mainly due to more food and technology, industrial revolution World growth rate begins to decrease in 2000 Population Year 1 AD China and India most populated Population Year 1500 AD Spanish and Portuguese shipped to America and explored these regions and populated more in Southern America Population Year 1900 AD: o North America was now known because more people immigrated o Africa was shrinking because of slavery and colonization and health problems o Industrial revolution not only took place in Europe but also in North America Population Year 2000 AD: o Major population increase in South America o Population in Europe decreased due to WWI and WWII o The proportion of South Asia and East Asia didnt change at all over the last 2000 years, it is still one of the most populated areas in the world o Increase in population in Africa, especially in Northern parts of Africa o Interestingly, the European proportion of the world population has declined since 1900s where it was 15%, and in 1960 it was 11%, and in 2000 it was only 6% of world population Population Year 2050 AD: o Will be projected that there will be 9 billion people living on this Earth, 32% will be living in North, South Africa and South and East Asia o Growth will decline further Population Year 2300 AD: o 9 billion people o Population might not grow further than this o The most increase is projected in Africa, and South and Eastern Asia will remain the most populated areas in the world Life expectancy o Life expectancy is going up per person, and income is going up each year as well o Epidemics and war are two main factors why life expectancy decreased over the years World migration o Internal and international migration o At the moment, it is estimated nearly 190 million people, about three percent of the worlds population, lived outside their country of birth o US and Spain are among the countries that get the most migrants www.notesolution.com o Mexico and China are countries where most people are leaving World population density o Population density is not evenly distributed over the world, and not even in the countries o Consequences of this might be regional conflict Session 2: Malthus dawning: Are we too many? Theories and idea on how population growth will benefit or not benefit the world Ideas will follow us through most or all of lectures in future Current World Population More and more people are living on this planet World population growth rate However, the world population growth rate is declining We will become less more over the years World population growth rate = surplus of population in comparison to years in time Population growth rate = pop t2 pop t0/ pop t1 World population throughout history We will get less more on this planet Is this a benefit or catastrophe? Population densities 2010 Population density = total population / area Canada has the least dense population among these countries Although there are other countries that are really rich (i.e. Netherlands), they deal with more people, so its one of the most highly dense country in the world India is big country and quite a lot of people per square kilometres live The media covers this topic on a daily basis food prices to rocket as population explodes We were concerned about population growth in 1970s and 80s, and we should still be concerned nowadays Malthus prophecy There are other theories out there that state the world cant hold that many people anymore When Malthus made his prophecy, there were about 3 billion people worldwide and he was concerned about this state especially when he looked at the food production and the technologies out there to cater these populations Malthus thought in late 18 century that these two statements he made were fixed laws of nature: 1. People have to eat fixed law www.notesolution.com 2. We like to procreate and have sex and get children Malthus prophecy (contd) Geometrical ratio = population is increasing exponentially Arithmetical ratio = population would increase in a linear way Growth of food will grow in a linear way Population growth will increase exponentially Where growth of food and population growth meets = carrying capacity (when population growth will be higher than production of food, which will be final stage of population growth and there will not be any growth further than that) Cornucopians These people think there is no limit to growth, and resources will be there for people on Earth These people are called Cornucopians according to Greek term, which defines plenty of food he/she needs Population doctrines These are at the moment the most powerful ones Doctrine = qualified collection of thinking, not a theory as such because it doesnt have to be scientific Most well known book of genesis food needed to be multiplied o Positive population doctrines applied about 1300 BC Confucius population growth is good, but governments should balance on population and resources o He might have experience some cases where there are overpopulation and the resources (food) wasnt enough for those people, but he thought there may be food in the future Plato population quality is more important than quantity o Emphasis should be on population stability o Saw the density in cities in Greece and thought that it might be more valuable to draw on the quality on the population (develop thinking in education) and the quantity Cicero Roman emperor said population growth is necessary to maintain Roman influence o These doctrines had an underlying belief system St. Augustine abstinence is the preferred way to deal with human sexuality o Second best is to marry and to procreate o His doctrine was to stop making kids only if you have to marry then thats ok, but the best is to not have children St. Thomas Aquinas abstinence is not better than marriage and procreation o Countered St. Augustine and said well if you want to marry and get children, that is better than not getting children www.notesolution.com Ibn Khaldun population growth is inherently good because it increases employment specialization and raises income Physiocrats wealth of nations is in land, not in people o Population depends on wealth of land stimulated by free trade o Agenda is on economic trade and not so much on population growth Malthus population grows exponentially, that results in poverty when we dont have more restraints o Turned into priest, so idea was population, if its not confined to moral beliefs, it will result in something bad like poverty o Dominates discourse of population growth Marx society at each point in history has its own law of population that determines the consequences of population growth Poverty is not the natural result of population growth Ambiguity of future Limits to Growth (Club of Rome 1972) o Book on the limits on resources of the world o Up to that point where statistical calculations about the resources, how long they will last, and the calculation used to be in a way that they calculated the resources for at least 1000 or more years o Club of Rome was private group of people who came together in the late 1960s while this discussion was going on and sat down and thought about predicaments of mankind and wanted to publish a book on outcome of this group of people Initial members consisted of politicians, scientists, and businessmen Later on consisted of men like Elliot Trudeau o Found out quite a lot of resources might be limited and will not last 50 years longer and then we need to find some substitutes or think about something else o This book was sold dominating the debate in 1970s because at that time the poverty and the developing world were quite covered The Ultimate Resource (Julian Simon 1981) o Sat down and wrote this book to counter the Limits to Growth and showed that basically there are no limits to growth o Ultimate resource is the human mind/thinking and the technology and inventions that the human mind could produce o His idea is that we can manage infinite growth of population o There are three ideas that might be wrong in Malthusian thinking: He thinks that population relates to economic effects, especially income Malthusian income per capita is