UNIT 5 BLOG

VOCABULARY

CBR-  Crude Birth Rate. Number of birth among 1,000 people in a year.


CDR- Crude Death Rate. Number of death amonng 1,000 people in a year.


TFR-  Total Fertility Rate. Average number of children born under per woman.


Replacement Level Fertility- Levels of childbearing. Normally around 2.1


Population Momentum- Population growth at a national level. For example, if the country is over the replacement level fertility rate, the nation's population momentum will be increasing.

Net Migration Rate- Number of people leaving and entering the country per 1,000 in a country.


Family Planning- Restricting the number of children each household can have.

Affluence-  Amounts of resources and wealth each person has in a country.


IPAT equation- Impact = Population x Affluence x Technology. This equation tells us how those three factors have an impact on our environment.


GDP- Gross Domestic Product. Value of all the products and services produced in a country in a specific amount of time.


Population Pyramid-



MAKING CONNECTIONS

    The first stage of demographic transition shows a slow population growth. In this stage there is both high birth and death rate which cancels each other out and keeps a stable yet slow growing population. This stage occurs when the country is still not modernized and is far from the industrial age. There is no medicine or any technology development, therefore many people die off with sickness and have lot more children due to their lack of education and technology. Lot of deaths are not only the adults but the children also so the child mortality rate and infant mortality rates are high. People usually die early in this stage unlike people in stage 3 or 4. Most of the people's occupation in this stage are agricultural. They live off of crops and live stocks. In this stage, there are rarely any environmental impact that humans have on earth. They just use the soil to grow their crops and grow animals for their fur and meat. Like mentioned before, this is before the industrial age so there is rarely any pollution and excessive use of resources. 
     The second stage, unlike the first stage, has a rapid population growth. The country becomes modernized and became more aware of sanitation and more food and water. This decrease the death rate of the country when the birth rate still remains high. Children are able to get vaccination and more sanitized care and are able to avoid child and infant mortality rate. But at this stage, people are still not yet very informed about birth control pills so the amount of children in each house hold is still very high. People were probably having a lot of children because they needed someone to take care of them once they get old and more children to support their family. Humans are probably impacting the environment more than they did in phase one. As people get more informed not only sanitation but also more developed technology and increase amount of food consumption.
     The third stage is a stable population growth. The country enters the industrial age and people get more education and get informed on birth control. People start to have less children per family. Their income also increase due to the stable economy and abundance in resources and increase in affluence. Since technology is developed the death rate drops down low but at the same time the birth rate also drops down due to more working couples and birth control pills. This stage is probably when humans start to use excessive amounts of resources from the environment and cause pollution in air, soil, and water. More factories are created, more transportation systems, and people are in need of more goods to keep their daily life comfortable. 
      Finally the stage four shows the declining population growth. By this stage, countries have reached a high level of affluence, education, and technology. At this stage, the population pyramid looks like an upside down pyramid, having large number of elderly people and less amount of younger population. Like mentioned in stage 3, lot more people are having less children due to their work and birth control and in this stage, women have almost equal rights as men and play a strong role in a society. Also due to the high level of technology, older people are living longer, their maximum age reaching around 80. Those people will die off soon and the country will be left will small amounts of younger people to support their earlier generations. This stage has reached the maximum level of technology and affluence. Their use of resources are ever high and literally every ting they use are made in a factory which cause high environmental pollution. But due to their developed technology, they prevent the pollution from causing greater problems. 

CURRENT EVENT

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/18/world/global-number-of-youths-is-highest-ever-un-reports.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3As%2C%7B%222%22%3A%22RI%3A17%22%7D&_r=0

Nearly in all 33 poorest countries in the world has over population. That is due to the lack of education and less developed technology and information on birth control. And due to this increasing child birth, number of youths are increasing massively. The pros might be the fact that these youths will reach their twenties and thirties and will be able to work and possibly help the economy of the country. But the cons are the fact that these young people will reach their reproductive stage soon and will have children. Even if they have few children, due to their massively large population, it will increase the population farther. 

BIG PICTURE REFLECTION

Human Impact
As the population grows it effects the whole community and environment. Starting from the phase one of the demographic transition, human population has been increasing. As people pass the agricultural age and industrial age, increasing the technology and education, people started to live longer and almost every children born are able to grow as a healthy adult. But as this cycle goes on and on, people start to need more resources to support the massive population. Especially in poor countries where it is still under developing stage, population is increasing exponentially.

Environmental Impact
Increasing human population requires more resources. The main thing will be the food source. In order to make more food source for more  people, farmers deprive the soil and land that is available to them. Forests are disappearing because farmers are cutting down the tress, not only for the lumber but for more land. Then they plant various crops on that land for years and years, taking out all the nutrients inside the land. This decrease the amount of land and nutrients that are also crucial for other animals from that land. Not only the land but the factories also create problems for the environment. All the chemicals that are coming from the factories pollute the water and air which are the most crucial factors for humans and other species on earth. 

Economic Effect
In developing countries, people are always working yet not earning enough money to support their families. But in developed countries people's affluence is high and are economically stable. These situations continue and the gap between the two types of countries are increasing. 

Government Legislation
One of the most famous law in family planning is the China's one child policy. Due to their massive population and increase in pollution, the government decided to restrict the number of children to only one per family. This did make the population in China stabilize. These restrictions may be viewed as too much government interfering in personal life but I believe that these laws should be used in other developing countries who face the same problems