Module 3 - For Midterm Exam Flashcards
(103 cards)
Since the time of the ________, when the world population began growing rapidly, individuals have argued about the causes and consequences of population growth.
Industrial Revolution
In 1798, _______ wrote An Essay on the Principle of Population, changing the way European leaders thought about population growth.
Thomas Malthus (1766–1834)
Eventually, he argued, human populations would outstrip their food supply and collapse into starvation, crime, and misery.
Thomas Malthus
He converted most economists of the day from believing that high fertility increased industrial output and national wealth to believing that per capita output fell with rapidly rising population.
Thomas Malthus
_______ collected data to show that populations tended to increase exponentially or compound, while food production either remained stable or increased only slowly.
Thomas Malthus
In Malthusian terms, growing human populations are limited only by _____
disease or famine, or social
constraints that compel people to reduce birth rates—late marriage, insufficient resources, celibacy, and “moral restraint.”
However, the economist Karl Marx (1818–1883) presented an opposing
view that population growth results from _____, _____, _____, and _____.
poverty, resource depletion,
pollution, and other social ills.
Slowing population growth, claimed ______, requires that people be treated justly, and that exploitation and oppression be eliminated from social arrangements.
Marx
Both ____ and ____ developed their theories about human population growth when the world, technology, and society were understood much differently than they are today. Some believe that we are approaching, or may have surpassed, the earth’s carrying capacity.
Marx, Malthus
______, a mathematical biologist at Rockefeller University, reviewed published estimates of the maximum human population size the planet can sustain.
Joel Cohen
The estimates, spanning 300 years of thinking, converged on a median value of 10–12 billion. We are more than ______ strong today, and still growing, an alarming prospect for some. In this view, ______ should be our top priority.
7 billion
birth control
Cornell University entomologist ______, for example, has said, “By 2100, if current trends continue, twelve billion miserable humans will suffer a difficult life on Earth.”
David Pimentel
Optimists argue that Malthus was wrong in his predictions of famine and disaster 200 years ago because he failed to account for ______ and _____.
scientific and technical progress
TRUE or FALSE
✔ food supplies have increased faster than population growth
since Malthus’s time
TRUE
TRUE or FALSE
✔ progress in agricultural productivity, engineering, information technology, commerce, medicine, sanitation, and other achievements of modern life have made it possible to support
approximately 1,000 times as many people per unit area as was
possible 10,000 years ago
TRUE
TRUE or FALSE
Knowing your ecological footprint is essential
TRUE
Even more unfortunate, developing countries saw a rise, from an average of _____ calories per day in 1970 to _____ in 2015. In that similar period, the world population grew from 3.7 to more than 7 billion people. Indeed, terrible famines have stricken various locations in the past 200 years.
2,135 , 2,850
The impact of human activities measured in terms of the area of biologically productive land and water required to produce the goods consumed and to assimilate the wastes generated.
Ecological Footprint
One way to estimate our environmental impacts is to _______. It gives us a single number, called our ecological footprint.
express our consumption choices in the equivalent amount of land required to produce goods and services.
estimates the relative amount of productive land needed to support each of us.
Ecological Footprint
the land and water area NEEDED TO PRODUCE THE RESOURCES we use and to absorb our wastes
Footprint
the amount of biologically productive AREA THAT IS AVAILABLE TO PROVIDE THE resources we use and
to absorb our waste
Biocapacity
Footprint =
Biocapacity =
Demand
Supply
Services provided by nature make up a large proportion of our ____________. For example, forests and grasslands store carbon, protect watersheds, purify air and water, and provide habitat for wildlife.
ecological footprint