The Habitable Planet

Visit the link to complete the following questions -

Note that you will need to click on the various blue section numbers

  1. Given the negative effects of overpopulation, which component of the I=PAT equation do you think is most logical to address to reduce environmental impact? Why?
  1. Why is it so difficult to calculate a carrying capacity for earth?
  1. What is demography?
  1. Based on what you know so far, why is human demography fairly predictable?
  1. Why is the global net number of migrants zero?
  1. Using arrows, make a diagram of how industrialization led to population growth.
  1. What factors contributed to a smaller family size? Why do you think these factors may be different in different countries?
  1. Read over the information provided about the demographic transition and enlarge figure 3. What would you expect to happen to renewable resources during each phase? Any different for non-renewable? Finally, what would you speculate to happen to ecological footprint at each phase?
  1. Provide examples of societal events that could cause a “baby-boom”.
  1. Click on and look at figure 4. How might we account for the trend seen in the graph?
  1. Why might families of rural areas have more children than their urban counterparts?
  1. Why does location have such a dramatic effect on life expectancy?
  1. What would you expect the relationship between the health of an ecosystem and life expectancy to be? Why?
  1. Considering how long humans have been on the earth, 1850 isn’t really all that long ago. However, why did the global population remain fairly small until then? Explain.
  1. Why do such small changes in the number of children per woman have such large effects on the global population over time?
  1. If world population growth rates peaked in the 1960s then why are we still growing? What countries, specifically, are responsible for the most growth? Why?
  1. How does the age distribution of a society play a role in its success and stability?
  1. What are the risks to a country that drops below the rate of replacement? Why?
  1. Where does sustainability fit into our relationship with resources considering out growing population? Which stage of the demographic transition do you think has the greatest potential to negatively impact their ability to be sustainable? What about the ability to have a positive impact?(You had to see this one coming)
  1. Are countries with large populations automatically the ones that consume the most resources (per person)? Explain.
  1. Why are people currently moving from rural to urban areas? What factors are driving this change? Is the good for the stability of a nation?
  1. How does a place’s dependency ratio effect their economic success?
  1. What are choices that people make in developed nations that reduce life expectancy? Who do you think is responsible for attempting to reverse these trends, if anyone?