ENVS 1000U Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Sub-Saharan Africa, Millennium Development Goals, Infant Mortality

• School: UOIT
• Department: Environmental-Science
• Course: ENVS 1000U
• Professor: Mary Olavson

Document Summary

Human populations- e(cid:272)ologi(cid:272)al (cid:858)rules(cid:859) apply to hu(cid:373)a(cid:374)s. Took all of human history to reach 1 billion (in 1804) In 1927, reached 2 billion, and then continued to grow rapidly. Reached 7 billion on oct. 31, 2011. Due to exponential growth, even if the growth rate remains steady, population will continue to grow. Perspectives on human population have changed over time. Population growth results from technology, sanitation, food: death rates drop, but not birth rates. Some people say growth is no problem: new resources will replace depleted ones, but, some resources (i. e. biodiversity) are irreplaceable. Quality of life will suffer with unchecked growth: less food, space, wealth per person. Population growth is correlated with poverty, not wealth. Policymakers believe growth increases economic, political, military strength: governments offer incentives for more children, 60% of european nations think their birth rates too low in non-european nations, only 8% feel their birth rates are too low.