Lec 3 Flashcards
(30 cards)
Forecast of human population growth
It is believed the exponential growth will plateau by 2100
Population
Individuals who live in the same place at the same time
Humans are considered
One population, because we can travel and disperse easily
Population change is based on
Current size
Birth rates
Death rates
Immigration and emigration
Carrying capacity (K)
Population change equation
(b+i)-(d+e)
Human carrying capacity
Difficult to calculate because of cultural evolution and technological advancements.
Population density
The number of individuals per unit area
Population distribution
Spatial arrangement of individuals
3 types of distribution
Random
Regular/even
Clumped
Shaping factors-Age structure
Periods of successful repro
Periods of high and low juvenile and adult survival
If old individuals are being replaced
Whether it is declining
Shaping factor- Sex ratio
Important for reproduction
Which countries account for more population growth
Less developed countries
More developed countries account for
Account for 17 percent of the world’s population and use 70 percent of the world’s resources
Black death
A large drop in human population
Human quality of life
Has increased over time
Human impacts on the Earth
We have protected some endangered species and ecosystems
Environmental degradation
Wasting, depleting, and degrading the natural capital
Humans directly affect 83 percent of land surfaces
Species extinction
Is occurring 100 times faster
Malthusian catastrophe
If population continues to increase in its current trend, a catastrophe will occur over resources
Example of malthusian catastrophe
Rwandan Genocide
Malthusian trap
Increased food production/resources
Higher quality of lifestyle which leads to population increase
Population increase depletes resources
Resource availability decreases and quality of life decreases
This is a cycle
What the Malthusians got wrong
People are focusing on spreading resources more
If we lived like Americans
We would need more than 4 earths to sustain ourselves
Ecological footprint
A tool used to expressed the environmental impact of an individual (per capita) or a population or a country