4.3 Population-resource relationships

Question 1

What is food security?

Answer 1

Concept of having available, accessible and affordable food that is safe and nutritious so that people may live a healthy lifestyle

Question 2

What are the environmental factors that lead to food insecurity?

Answer 2

• extreme climate food cannot grow and crops/livestock need the right amount of water sunlight and heat in order to survive
• climatic hazards such as floods, droughts, tropical storms and wildfires can be detrimental to crops and livestock

Question 3

What are the economic factors that lead food shortages?

Answer 3

• LICs may lack funding for agricultural technology and innovation, causes less productivity and so food shortages
• in areas where productivity is poor, still opportunity to purchase food from other areas where productivity is higher
• however in poorer areas, many cannot afford to buy food

Question 4

What are the political factors that cause food shortages?

Answer 4

• wars and severe political instability can majorly disrupt food supplies in a country
• disruption can make it difficult to source food through growing it or importing it
• global links e.g trade agreements can affect food supplies

Question 5

What are the effects of food shortages?

Answer 5

• Hunger - caused by lack of food. This can lead to under nutrition and even famine.
• soil erosion - removal of soil occurs more rapidly in areas that are very dry. Food insecurity can lead to soil erosion as farmers try to get more out their land.deforestation, overgrazing and over-cultivation expose the soil and make it vulnerable to erosion.
• Rising prices - when less food available, prices increase. Poor countries more vulnerable. Also means people cannot afford to be picky so many eat poor quality food. Can leave people vulnerable to diseases such as food poisoning if food is contaminated.
• social unrest - can cause conflict if two countries want the same food supply

Question 6

What are the three strategies to ensure food security?

Answer 6

Increasing access
Increasing amount
Increasing efficiency

Question 7

How can you increase access to food?

Answer 7

• increase country’s access to foreign markets so they can import food
• trading agreements such as trade blocs can be very beneficial

Question 8

How can we increase the amount of food?

Answer 8

• Green Revolution:
• increased use of fertilizers/pesticides, mechanization and irrigation and development of high yielding varieties (HYVs) increased yields in India
• however there are issues such as salinisation caused by irrigation or farmers unable to repay loans on expensive equipment

Question 9

How can we increase efficiency in order to ensure food security?

Answer 9

• makes it more available, more affordable and are less expenditures
• waste reduced
  PRACTICAL ACTION
• show people practice ways to overcome issues such as food insecurity
• improving efficiency of food practices, so amount/quality improved
• e.g worked to incorporate rainwater harvesting in disadvantaged areas

Question 10

What different constraints control population?

Answer 10

Poverty
Famine
Plague/disease
War
Natural disaster
Political instability/corruption
Unfair trade policies

Question 11

How does poverty control population?

Answer 11

• Lack of money means that an individual cannot purchase the resources needed to sustain life
• country cannot afford development of infrastructure that would allow economic development

Question 12

How does famine control population?

Answer 12

• failure of crops can be due to natural causes e.g drought or human activity e.g overusing resources
• poverty + growing population contribute to exhaustion of soil and shortage of food
• leads to starvation and death

Question 13

How does disease(plague) control population?

Answer 13

• more likely to affect people who have poor nutrition as poverty and famine contribute to spread of disease

Question 14

How does war control population?

Answer 14

• kill lots of people
• can be a result of shortage of resources
• leads to destruction of houses, infrastructure and crops which contribute to long term deaths

Question 15

How does political instability and corruption control the population?

Answer 15

• can lead to lack of foreign investment
• e.g Chad has large reserves of oil and they make a lot of money from this. However, due to corruption and instability in the gov neither the world bank nor the oil TNCs are prepared to invest in the infrastructure that would allow Chad to its oil to support its people.

Question 16

How do natural disaster control population?

Answer 16

• kill people and destroy society’s means of supporting itself
• leading to further death
• e.g Tang Shan earthquake in 1976 killed up to half a million people

Question 17

How do unfair trade policies control population?

Answer 17

• make it difficult for an LIC to use its natural resources to support and sustain social/economic development

Question 18

What is carrying capacity?

Answer 18

the maximum population size of a biological species that can be sustained in that specific environment given the food, habitat, water and other resources available

Question 19

What is overpopulation?

Answer 19

too many people to be supported by the environment and its resources

Question 20

What is optimum population?

Answer 20

Concept where the human population is able to balance maintaining a maximum population size with optimal standards of living for all people
Although some link it to the best use of resources or highest level of income

Question 21

What is underpopulation?

Answer 21

• too little people to fully utilize the environment and its resources

Question 22

What are the causes of underpopulation?

Answer 22

1.Environmental disadvantages:
- extreme climates
- difficult to clear vegetation
- infertile soils

2Accessibility :
- if difficult/costly to travel to an area, reluctant to do so
- larger the area harder the development of successful network communications as more expensive

3. Communication:
   - roads difficult to construct in some areas
   - costs too high to justify building better roads
   - railways more efficient but expensive
   - some areas not suitable for planes e.g forest
4. Remoteness:
   - long way from large centres of population
   - can cause trading difficulties

5.Historical:
- many underpopulated areas linked to colonialism

6. Type of economy:
   - traditional farming only support small numbers

Question 23

What are the consequences of underpopulation?

Answer 23

1. High rate of immigration:
   - people will immigrate elsewhere
   - foreign workers can help to develop economy but if more qualified or prepared to be paid less than locals can create problems

2.Regional disparities:
- large regional differences in wealth/development
- people may migrate to wealthier areas
3. Service Provision:
- overall lack of demand in underpopulated areas have a lower than average service provision
4. Urban Population:
- tend to exhibit high degree of urbanisation as people tend to live in more settled urban areas

5.High standard of living:
- majority of underpopulated countries MEDCs
- high levels of tech and good standard of living

Question 24

What is Brazil doing to try to overcome underpopulation?

Answer 24

• total population 162million, 90% living in southeast coastal belt rest of country underpopulated

Government schemes to attract people to interior:
- Brasilia a new capital created in 1960s, nearly 1000km from coast
- networks of highways built linking interior with costal area
-however had caused a lot of rural to urban migration

Development scheme:
The Great Carajas Project:
- large scale including mining and forestry
- worlds largest known deposits of iron are being developed
- World Bank helping to fund it
- environmental side effects: forest destruction and flooding of large areas

Question 25

How does overpopulation occur?

Answer 25

• increased population due to high natural increase or migration
• increased levels of consumption by the population
• failure in the resource base due to a climatic or geological hazard e.g drought
• exhaustion of the resource of the resource base e.g soils become exhausted

Question 26

What are the consequences of overpopulation?

Answer 26

Social:
- lack of basic services
- shortage of clean water supplies
- low standards of living
- high crime rates
- overcrowding
- unstable governments=corruption
- inadequate services

Economic:
- higher unemployment and underemployment
- economy burdened with large international debt

Environmental:
- water, land and air pollution as shanty towns grow
- use of fertilisers and machinery cause pollution
- increase in deforestation and soil erosion as more land farmed
- overgrazing of grasslands as cattle numbers increase
- traffic congestion increases

Question 27

What is a case study for underpopulation in a country?

Answer 27

Canada:
- total population 27million
- only 5% land arable
- most underpopulated parts = North West Territories (NWT)
- province size of India but population less than 55,000
- road network expanded in an attempt to connect areas: even now only 350km of paved roads and 2430km of all-weather ones
- 90% of area more than 100km from nearest road and half the population depend on air transport for year-round access

Question 28

What is the malthus population theory?

Answer 28

• believed that because human powers of procreation so greatly exceed the production of food, population will always exceed available resources
• believed earths growing too quickly and that at some point in the future it will exceed food supply

Checks on population growth:
Positive checks: raise death rate; hunger and disease
Preventative checks: lower birth rate; abortion, birth control

Question 29

What is Boserups theory on population?

Answer 29

• suggested that human innovation and technological advances would allow food production to keep up with population growth
• suggested that farmers will change their approach to farming if the population increases and more food is needed while still being able to maintain free time for themselves

Question 30

What are the critiques of the optimum population theory?

Answer 30

1. Difficult to determine Optimum population:
   many factors need to be taken into account e.g per capita income and antural resources
2. A static theory:
   ignores changes in natural/human resources which affect per capita income
3. Neglects biological and sociological factors
4. Not Practicable:
   - not fixed so unable to guide the formation of any policy