Chapter 4 human geography PDF

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Lectures notes that followed a powerpoint guideline. Prepares you for the midterm. Notes also taken on what the professor stated in class. ...

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Class_4 Population (Chapter 4) Population Geography Provides the background tools and understanding of population data such as: -Numbers of people -Age of people -Sex distribution of people -Patterns of fertility and mortality -Density Helps us understand how the people live in a given area, how they may interact with one another, how they use the land, what pressure on resources exists, and what the future may bring Differs from demography, the statistical study of human population, in its concern with spatial analysis – the relationship of numbers to area Population Geography THE SPATIAL VIEW OF DEMOGRAPHY  STUDY OF POPULATION DISTRIBUTION, COMPOSITION, RATES OF GROWTH, AND SPATIAL PATTERNS OF FLOW POPULATION DENSITY  ARITHMETIC: the average number of people in a country  PHYSIOLOGIC: the number of people in a country per unit of land suitable for farming or grazing. KEY MEASURES  RATE OF NATURAL INCREASE - population growth measured as the excess of live births over deaths  DOUBLING TIME: ( Year = 70/Rate of Natural Increase ) - How long it would take for those populations to double in size. - The time it takes for a population to double if the present growth rate remains constant Some Population Definitions Crude Birth Rates The annual number of live births per 1000 population It is “crude” because it relates births to total population without regard to the age or sex composition of the population

Some Population Definitions Total Fertility Rate The average number of children that would be born to each woman if, during her childbearing years, she bore children at the current year’s rate A more refined statement than the crude birth rate for showing the rate and probability of reproduction among fertile females Some Population Definitions Crude Death Rate - Also called mortality rate - The annual number of deaths per 1000 population - In the past, a valid generalization was that death rate varied with national levels of development - Characteristically, highest rates were found in the less developed countries - Nowadays, countries with a high proportion of elderly people, such as Denmark and Sweden, would be expected to have higher death rates than those with a high proportion of young people Some Population Definitions Infant Mortality Rate - The ratio of deaths of infants aged 1 year or under per 1000 live births. - Infant mortality rates are significant because it is at these ages that the greatest declines in mortality have occurred, largely as a result of the increased availability of health services Some Population Definitions Maternal Mortality Ratio Maternal deaths per 100,000 live births Maternal mortality is the single greatest health disparity between developed and developing countries Population Pyramids A graphic device that represents a population’s age and sex composition Why is Population Increasing at Different Rates in Different Countries? The Demographic Transition The Western Experience The Demographic Transition An attempt to summarize an observed voluntary relationship between population change and economic development

Traces the changing levels of human fertility and mortality presumably associated with industrialization and urbanization High birth and death rates will gradually be replaced by low rates First Stage High birth and high but fluctuating death rates Wars, famine, and disasters took heavy tolls Second Stage Industrialization Falling death rates due to advances in medical and sanitation practices; improved foodstuff storage; urbanization High birth rates because large families are still considered advantageous Third Stage Birth rates decline People begin to control family size The advantages of having many children in an agrarian society are not so evident in urbanized, industrialized cultures Fourth Stage Characterized by very low birth and death rates Will the world face an overpopulation problem? Population Controls Thomas R. Malthus A British economist In 1798 he published “An Essay on the Principle of Population As It Affects in the Future Improvement of Society” The world’s population was increasing faster than the food supplies needed to sustain it Population increases at what he called a geometric rate The means of subsistence growth at an arithmetic rate Population growth might be checked by hunger or other tragic events

Will the World Face an Overpopulation Problem? - Argued that human populations tend to increase at an exponential rate while food production either remains stable or increases arithmetically. Will the World Face an Overpopulation Problem? Karl Marx: a vehement critic of Malthus.

He believed the real problems were exploitation and oppression, and that the way to slow population growth was through social justice. Argued that workers always provide for themselves if able to work and given a fair share of the fruits of their labor. Overpopulation? - Neo-Malthusians: 1960s an 1970s, shifted concern from food shortages to poverty, natural resource scarcity, and environmental degradation, particularly in the developing world. - Paul Ehrlich: The Population Bomb (1968), predicted widespread disaster unless population growth was reduced to zero throughout the world by compulsory methods if necessary. - “The first task is population control at home. How do we go about it? Many of my colleagues feel that some sort of compulsory birth regulation would be necessary to achieve such control. One plan often mentioned involved the addition of temporary sterilants to water supplies or staple food. Doses of the antidote would be carefully rationed by the government to produce the desired population size." (p. 130 )

Overpopulation? Neo-Malthusians made birth control and sterilization highest priority Largely ignored problems of unequal resource and wealth distribution, oppression, and inequality Forced and coerced sterilizations were widespread in India in the 1970s. But what are the consequences? • Ignores basic social and reproductive rights of women • Takes resources from health and safety programs • Does not consider socio-economics or unequal wealth distribution Two Worlds Poor, young, high growth, overpopulation: Africa, Asia, Latin America Rich, old, no growth/decreasing populations, overconsumption...