Overview of Population

• Many questions critical to the study of environmental science:

• How many people can the Earth support?• Will the population level off or continue to grow until

there is a crash?

“… population increases in a geometric ratio, while the means of subsistence increases in an arithmetic ratio …In this state of things there will be no remedy; the wholesome checks of vice and misery (which have hitherto kept this principle within bounds) will have been done away … hatred, violence, war and bloodshed will be the infallible consequence; and from the pinnacle of happiness, peace, refinement and social advantage we shall be hurled once more into a profounder abyss of misery, want, and barbarism that ever by the sole operation of the principle of population!"

Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834)

Analysis of a developing country

1. Go to the PRB Website and select a country with an RNI of greater than 2.1 percent

2. Plot the growth of that country for 50 years assuming no change in growth rate

3. Plot the growth of the country for 50 years assuming a decline in growth rate of 2% per year

4. Plot the growth of the country using the logistic growth equation and a reasonable carrying capacity

Demography of Countries

Demographic Stages

Demographic Transition Analysis

1. Again using the country that you have selected and the data on the PRB website, discuss the stage of the DT which best characterizes your country

2. Does your country appear to be following the conventional/western model of the DT?

3. Looking at all the countries in the region of your country, does TFR appear to be correlated to GNIPPP?

Poverty and Variations within Countries

Population and Quality of Life

Food Security Analysis

1. Using the data on the FAOSTAT database, characterize food security in the country that you have chosen, using at least three different indicators.

2. How has food security in your country changed since 1990?

The Famine Early Warning System

Reducing the Total Fertility Rate

Government Policies and Fertility

Achieving Population Stabilization