Main Concepts

Central Cases:

• "China's One-Child Policy " p207-208

The Science Behind the Story:

• "Measuring the Environmental Impact of Human Population" p212-213
• "Fertility Decline in Bangladesh" p222-223

A. Population Biology Concepts

B. Human Population

1. Human population dynamics

2. Population size

3. Impacts of population growth

Images

This graph shows the explosive growth of human population. This growth can be attributed to technological advances: agriculture, the industrial revolution, the green revolution, improved health care, better sanitation, improved sources of drinking water, etc. All this growth puts tremendous pressure on Earth's natural resources and our environment.

In the map above red represents large populations of people. A few things to note about the map: people are concentrated in the mid-latitudes, Asia is the most populated continent, people are concentrated around urban centers, and China and India are the most populated countries in the world.

The global population pie above shows the world's human population distribution in graphical format.

Main Questions

1. How and why has the human population changed over time?

2. How has human population, affluence, and technology affected the environment?

3. How does personal income, education, family planning programs, and the status of women affect populaiton dynamics?

Vocabulary

Chapter 8

age distribution, age structure pyramid, birth rate, carrying capacity, cornucopian economics, death rate, demographic fatigue, demographic transition, demography, emigration, density dependent factors, exponential growth, density independent factors, HIV/AIDS, immigration, industrial stage, IPAT model, life expectancy, K-selected species, limiting factors, natural rate of population change, neo-Malthusians, one-child policy, population, population density, population distribution, population growth rate,  post-industrial stage, poverty, pre-industrial stage, quality of life, r-selected species, replacement fertility, total fertility rate (TFR), Thomas Malthus, transitional stage, type I survivorship curve, type II survivorship curve, type III survivorship curve

Additional Readings

• "Basics of Population Education" from the Population Connection
• "The Effect of China's One-Child Family Policy after 25 Years" The New England Journal of Medicine
  

Demonstrations

• Exponential Growth

Videos

• "World Population over Time" Produced by Population Connection.
• Human Population Dynamics-Part of the Habitable Planet Series by Harvard Center for the Environment broadcast by Annenberg (28:26) (Free Sign in Required)
  • Viewing Guide
• "China the Consumption Machine" (12:00)-Disc 1, Chapter 9 of Planet in Peril
• "Social Security in Crisis"-ABC News (7:03)-From the online text or text CD.
• Life After People-The History Channel examines the question-what would happen to our planet if the entire population of homo sapiens dissappeared?
  • Viewing Guide
  • Fate of the Animals-What will happen to dogs, cats, mice, zoo animals, and roaches?

Documents

• Labs
  • Oh Deer! Lab
  • Habit Loss Lab
• Warm Ups
  • Multiple Choice Questions
• Activities
  • Population Ecology Worksheet
  • Age Structure Diagram
  • Stage Stepping Human Population Activity
  • UN Population Meeting
  • "Techniques for Estimating Population Density and Size"- Online Text or Textbook CD Chapter 8
  • "Investigating Life Histories"- Online Text or Textbook CD Chapter 8
  • "Analyzing Age Structure Pyramids"- Online Text or Textbook CD Chapter 8
  • "Age Pyramids and Population Growth Graph It Activity"-Online Text or Textbook CD Chapter 8
• Excel Files
  • Population
• PowerPoints/Notes
  • Outline Notes
• Tests
  • Study Guide
  • Quiz 1-08

Links

• The Population Connection (Formerly called Zero Population Growth
• People Facts and Figures-Facts on Human Population
• Population Reference Bureau-