WORLD POPULATIONS LAB

1. Proceed through the tutorial. Approximately when was the bottle half full?
The bottle was about half full at 11:59

2. Then answer the next question.

3. Did anything surprise you about these two parts?

I guess seeing the numbers on paper and seeing how much resources we have used up and how much we have left was shocking to realize.

4. “Any time living things are allowed to reproduce freely, their numbers increase exponentially not linearly. And when people talk about “steady growth,” they mean exponential growth then, too” Why do you think people might have trouble understanding exponential growth?

People may think that exponential growth means a steady incline in population growth although
what they do not realize is that exponential means the rate at which it increases is doubling so that it increase faster and faster.

5. Whenever you hear that something is growing by some percentage, or that something is growing steadily, what rule should you remember in order to understand exponential growth?

The rule of 70 states that in order to estimate the humber of years for a variable to double, take the number 70 and divide it by the growth rate of the variable.

6. “When our consumption of a resource (energy, for instance) grows steadily, the doubling time takes on an even scarier meaning.” What is that scarier meaning?

That scarier meaning is of course the fact that our generation has used up more of the resource than all of history before us.

7. “…if we keep increasing our energy consumption like this, we’ll use more energy in the next 25 years than we’ve produced in all of history up to now.

8. “There are those who say we don’t need to worry about running out of oil, because there’s still lots of oil left in the grouse. Experts believe that over the past 150 years we have used up about half the total oil on Earth. In other words, our oil supply “bottle” is still haf full.” But if we keep doubling our population, what will happen?

If we keep doubling our population then the resource supply is going to run out before our next doubling.

THE PEOPLE PARADOX VIDEO

About India

1. Compare the education of the residents of north and south India. How how does this correlate with the number of children women bear?

The education of a culture is directly correlated with how many children the average women does bear. Since the women in Southern India are more educated it means that they are having less children on average.

2. Who are the “gatekeepers to health services” in India?
Husbands and mother-in-laws are the “gatekeepers to health service” in India.

3. Why might sons be preferred in India? A son is preferred in India because of their ability to care for their parents when they get older.

4. India demographic pyramid? What implications does this have?
In the India demographic pyramid it shows half of the population to be at the age for reproduction. Unless changes are implemented in the North’s education, and total average new children is decreased, total population is going to grow at an exponential rate.

5. Why are daughter often considered a burden in India? Often daughters are considered a burden in India because they are not supposed to stay with the family and help out. They are usually married in arrangement and the parents are expected to provide a sum of money called a dowry.

6. How did Abidi Shah change the lives of the young women in the village? Abidi Shah has implemented health services and educational reforms that have been successful in encouraging young women to become independent by learning carrier skills and practicing forms of contraceptive.

7. What are the obstacles for women and employment in India?

The biggest obstacle for women and potential employment in India is that there are simply not enough jobs to support them.

8. What is the knife-edge that India sits upon?

The population of India is growing exponentially and surpassing there economic yield. There are shortages in both employment and natural resources.

About Japan

What is the “revolutionary change” that is happening in Japan

The change in Japan is the amount of children they are allowed to have leaves them with a declining population rate.

2. If fertility stays at 1.3, Japan’s population will shrink in half.

3. What are two reasons Japanese women want to work?

Japanese women want to work because they can not have has many children now. Also women in Japan want to work because of the desire for financial gain.

4. The newswoman and her family had problems with childcare arrangements. What is the relationship between declining birth rates and childcare?

Many Japanese women work long hours and have trouble finding daycares that are open at the right hours that would allow them to keep a job. Because of this many people in Japan choose to have kids later in life or not at all which leads to more of a decline in birth rate.

5. Who cares for elders in Japan? Traditionally the daughter-in-law is supposed to take care of her husbands parents. Many women now work long hours which leaves no one to care for the elderly.

6. What does Japan’s age structure look like? What implications does this have?
Since Japan’s present fertility rate is 1.3 this is eventually going to lead to a lack of youth and works that essentially support the economy. Soon there is not going to be enough people to support Japans economy and would eventually have to bring in outside help from immigrants.

7. How might immigration help solve this problem?
Immigration would allow the economy to thrive by supplying new citizens to support the economy.

8. What is the average family size worldwide? The average family size has less than 2 children.

9. Many countries encourage families to have more children. It has been found to be easier to reduce fertility than to raise it.

Sub-Suharan Afica

What does sub-Saharan Africa’s age structure look like? What implications does this have?

The age structure in sub-Saharan Africa has a small middle and top with a large base. This is due to the fact that many adults are dying from the Aids virus. The potential consequences for this type of structure is a country full of kids with very little adults to take care of them.

2. What situations create tremendous pressures to immigrate? Declining amount of available resources of job opportunities leads to incentive to immigrate.

3. Describe the demographic transition as exemplified in Kenya (starting at 40:21 and in text)

The death rate in Kenya is rising.

4. Death rates from HIV/Aids life expectancy has declined from 65 to 49 years.

5. Women in Africa might have to make a choice between reproducing and risking HIV infection.

6. Explain how the economic gains of Asian Tigers came about.

Since the birth rate has decrease it has left more money for employment and job opportunities.

7. The key to population stabilization key is the education and liberation of women.

8. Why should we care about other countries? Because humans are the same species regardless of what country they are from and we should be helping humanity out as a whole.

9. What are two things that struck you most strongly about the situations in this video?
The differences between India and Japan were shocking and the fact that even with the measures  implemented for population control their economy is going to still have issues in the near future. Also what struck me as a potential solution was the fact that education has been shown to have a positive decrease in population growth. Educating the masses could prove beneficial for population control.