Population, Urbanization, and the Environment

1. Chapter 15 Population, Urbanization and the Environment

2. Chapter Outline • Population • Population and Social Inequality • Urbanization • The Environment • The Social Construction of Environmental Problems • Saving the Environment

3. The City of God: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil • Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is one of the world’s most beautiful cities. • With a population of more than 12 million in 2007, it is the 23rd biggest metropolitan area in the world. • Not all are well off, slums are home to about 20% of the city’s inhabitants.

4. The City of God: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil • Brazil’s 41 million people in 1940 multiplied to about 210 million in 2010. • The country is now more urbanized than the United States, with more than 3/4 of its population living in urban areas.

5. The Population “Explosion” • 10,000 years before the birth of Christ there were only about 6 million people in the world. • By mid-2011, there are more than 7 billion • In 2100 there will probably be about 9 or 10 billion, 85% of them in the developing countries of South America, Asia, and Africa

6. The Population “Explosion” • On July 1, 2005, there will be an estimated 6.4 billion people in the world according to the U.S. Census Bureau. • Where 1 person stood 12,000 years ago, there are now 1067 people. • Statistical projections suggest that by 2100, there will be about 1700 people.

7. World Population, Projected • INSERT FIGURE 15.1 HERE (PG. 362)

8. Sex Ratio • The ratio of women to men in a geographical area.

9. United States: 2014 (projected) • INSERT TOP FIGURE 15.2 (PG. 364) HERE

10. Mexico: 2014 (projected) • INSERT BOTTOM FIGURE 15.2 HERE (PG. 364)

11. Polling Question • There should be government intervention in determining the maximum number of children people can have. • Strongly agree • Agree somewhat • Unsure • Disagree somewhat • Strongly disagree

12. Demographers • Social-scientific analysts of human population.

13. Malthus’s Theory of Population • The basis of Malthus’s theory: • The facts: • People must eat, and they are driven by a strong sexual urge. • The assumption: • While food supply increases slowly and arithmetically (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.), population grows quickly and geometrically (1, 2, 4, 8, etc.).

14. Malthusian Trap • A cycle of population growth followed by an outbreak of war, pestilence, or famine that keeps population growth in check.

15. Critiques of Malthus • Technological advances have allowed rapid growth in how much food is produced for each person on the planet. • This is the opposite of the slow growth Malthus predicted.

16. Critiques of Malthus • Malthus thought the population couldn’t grow much larger in late-18th-century Western Europe without “positive checks” coming into play. • The Western European population increased from 187 million people in 1801 to 321 million in 1900. • It has now stabilized at about half a billion.

17. Critiques of Malthus • Population growth does not always produce misery. • Despite rapid population increases, Western Europe is one of the most prosperous regions in the world.

18. Critiques of Malthus • Helping the poor does not generally result in the poor having more children. • Although the human sexual urge is as strong as Malthus thought, people have developed contraceptive to control the consequences of sexual activity.

19. Demographic Transition Theory • Explains how changes in fertility and mortality affected population growth from preindustrial to postindustrial times. • The crude death rate is the annual number of deaths per 1000 people in a population. • The crude birth rate is the annual number of live births per 1000 women in a population.

20. Demographic Transition Theory: 4 Stages • Pre-industrial era - crude birth rates and crude death rates were high and population growth was slow. • Early industrialization - crude death rates fell, population growth was rapid.

21. Demographic Transition Theory: 4 Stages • Later in industrialization era - values about having children changed, the crude birth rate fell, resulting in slow growth again. • Postindustrial era - crude death rate has risen above the crude birth rate in many societies.

22. Demographic Transition Theory

23. Replacement Level • The number of children that each woman must have on average for population size to remain stable. • Ignoring any inflow of population from other countries and any outflow to other countries, the replacement level is 2.1.

24. Immigration and Emigration • Immigration, or in-migration, is the inflow of people into one country from one or more other countries and their settlement in the destination country. • Emigration, or out-migration, is the outflow of people from one country and their settlement in one or more other countries.

25. Case Study: Kerala • Kerala is a state in India with more than 32 million people. • Kerala had a total fertility rate of 1.8 in 1991, half of India’s national rate and far less than the replacement level of 2.1.

26. Case Study: Kerala • The government of Kerala solved overpopulation by increasing gender equality. • Today, Keralan women have the highest literacy rate, the highest labor force participation rate, and the highest rate of political participation in India.

27. Case Study: South Korea • Class inequality influences population growth too • South Korea’s total fertility rate of 6.0 in 1960 fell to just 1.6 in 1989 and 1.2 in 2010 • Declining class inequality led to less economic uncertainty and increase in industrialization

28. World’s 10 Largest Metropolitan Areas • INSERT TABLE 15.1 HERE (pg. 370)

29. Polling Question • If you could live anywhere in the United States that you wanted to, would you prefer a city, suburban area, small town, or farm? • City • Suburban area • Small town • Farm

30. Chicago School • Described the arrangement of the industrial city as expanding concentric circles: • The main business, entertainment, and shopping area is in the center. • The class position of residents increases as from inner to outer rings.

31. Concentric Zone Model: Chicago (1920)

32. Human Ecology • A theoretical approach to urban sociology that borrows ideas from biology and ecology to highlight the links between the physical and social dimensions of cities and identify the dynamics and patterns of urban growth.

33. Human Ecology • Differentiation in the theory of human ecology refers to the process by which urban populations and their activities become more complex and heterogeneous over time.

34. Human Ecology • Competition in the theory of human ecology refers to the struggle by different groups for optimal locations in which to reside and set up their businesses. • Ecological succession in the theory of human ecology refers to the process by which a distinct urban group moves from one area to another and a second group comes in to replace the group that has moved out.

35. After Chicago: A Critique • Social isolation, stress, emotional withdrawal and other problems may be as common in rural as in urban areas. • The patterns discovered are most applicable to American industrial cities in the first quarter of the 20th century. • Presents urban growth as a natural process, slighting historical, political, and economic foundations in capitalist industrialization.

36. The Peripheral Model of Cities • Central city • Suburban residential areas • Circumferential highway • Radial highway • Shopping mall • Industrial district • Office park • Service center • Airport complex • Combined employment and shopping center

37. New Urban Sociology • Emerged in the 1970s and stressesthat city growth is a process rooted in power relations and the urge to profit.

38. Corporate City • The growing post-World War II perception and organization of the North American city as a vehicle for capital accumulation.

39. Suburbanism • A way of life outside city centers that is organized mainly around the needs of children and involves higher levels of conformity and sociability than life in the central city.

40. Metropolitan Areas • Metropolitan areas include: • gated communities - Residents pay high taxes to keep the community patrolled and walled off from the outside world. • exurbs - Rural residential areas within commuting distance of the city. • edge cities - Exurban clusters of malls and offices at the convergence point of major highways.

41. 20 Largest Metropolitan Areas in the U.S., 2009 • INSERT TABLE 15.2 HERE (PG. 375)

42. Urban Sprawl • The spread of cities into ever-larger expanses of the surrounding countryside.

43. Gentrification • The process of middle-class people moving into rundown areas of the inner city and restoring them.

44. Postmodern City • A new urban form that is more privatized and socially and culturally fragmented and globalized than the corporate city.

45. Postmodern City: Three Features • More privatized. - access to formerly public spaces is limited to those who can afford to pay. • More fragmented. - a great variety of lifestyles proliferate based on race, ethnicity, immigrant status, class, sexual orientation, etc. • More globalized. - New York, London, and Tokyo epitomize the global city.

46. Environmental Degradation • Environmental degradation takes three main forms: • global warming • industrial pollution • the decline of biodiversity

47. Global Warming • The greenhouse effect is the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that allows more solar radiation to enter the atmosphere and less solar radiation to escape. • Global warming is the gradual worldwide increase in average surface temperature.

48. Annual Mean Global Surface Air Temperature • INSERT FIGURE 15.6 HERE (PG. 377)

49. Worldwide Insured Losses Due to Natural and Human Catastrophes • INSERT FIGURE 15.7 HERE (PG. 378)

50. Industrial Pollution • Acid rain is precipitation whose acidity destroys forests and the ecosystems of lakes. • It is formed by sulfur dioxide and other gases emitted by coal-burning power plants, pulp and paper mills, and motor-vehicle exhaust.