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Week8_PopulationandEnvironment.pptxPopulation and Environment
Week 8
Learning Objectives
Understand the basics of demography and be able to describe its central concepts
Explain why experts argue that world hunger does not resort from overpopulation
Understand and provide examples of arguments surrounding the threat of overpopulation in the US and how they have been marked by anti-immigrant prejudice
Explain the concepts of environmental inequality and environmental racism
Understand the various environmental problems that exist today
| Theoretical Perspective | Major Assumptions |
| Functionalism | Population and the environment affect each other. Normal pop. growth is essential for any society, but pop. growth that is too great or too little leads to various problems. Environmental problems are to be expected in an industrial society, but severe environmental problems are dysfunctional. |
| Conflict Theory | Population growth is not a serious problem because the world has sufficient food and other resources, all of which must be more equitably distributed. The practices of multinational corporations and weak regulation of these practices account for many environmental problems. |
| Symbolic Interactionism | People have certain perceptions and understandings of population and environmental issues. Their social backgrounds affect these perceptions, which are important to appreciate if population and environmental problems are to be addressed. |
| Intersectionality | The world may have sufficient resources, but depending on one’s class, race, gender, etc., access to those resources may be limited. Corporations and deregulation cause many environmental problems, but they have particularly severe consequences for poor communities and people of color. |
Population
Central concepts of demography
The study of population change
Fertility and birth rates, mortality and death rates, and migration
Demographic transition theory
Links population growth to the level of technological development across 3 stages of social evolution
1. Preindustrial societies; birth and death rate both high
2. Development of industrial societies; birth rate fairly high, death rate drops
3. Death rate remains low, birth rate finally drops
Population Growth and Decline
Population growth remains a problem in poor nations
Population decline is a problem in some industrial nations
For a country to maintain its population, the average child-bearing person needs to have 2.1 children, the replacement level for population stability
People in many industrial nations are living longer while birth rates drop, creating a higher proportion of older people and smaller proportion of younger people.
To deal with these types of population problems, governments have initiated pronatalist policies aimed at encouraging people to have more children
Other Population Growth Issues
Environmental concerns – examples?
Interpersonal conflict – examples?
Armed conflict
As populations grow, they need more food, water, and other resources. When these resources have become too scarce over the centuries, many societies have decided to take resources from other societies, “by any means necessary,” meaning, the use of force (Gleditsch & Theisen 2010)
Efforts to limit immigration have led to
Deportation
Detention
Issues of domestic and state violence
Measuring Fertility & Birth
Fertility: number of live births
Crude birth rate: number of live births for every 1,000 people in a population in a given year
General fertility rate: number of live births per 1,000 women aged 15 – 44 (i.e., of childbearing age)
Total fertility rate: number of children an average woman is expected to have in her lifetime (considering that some women have more children, and some have fewer or none)
Completed fertility rate: number of lifetime births per woman ages 40 – 44
Fertility Rates in the US Over Time
Fertility rate dropped during the Great Depression, from 1920 – 1935, before rising afterward until 1955
Sharp increase from 1945 – 1955: Boomers!
Fertility rate fell after 60s until 70s and has remained relative steady since, with slight fluctuations throughout
It’s your turn to interpret these data and graphs!
Source: Vespa, Jonathan, Lauren Medina, and David M. Armstrong, “Demographic Turning Points for the United States: Population Projections for 2020 to 2060,” Current Population Reports, P25-1144, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, DC, 2020.
Worldwide Population
Poor nations have predominantly agricultural economies and children are an important economic resource
Infant and child mortality rates are high in poorer, more agricultural nations (the US is an exception among other industrialized, democratic nations)
Traditional gender roles are often still very strong in poor nations
Contraception is inaccessible and uncommon in poor nations
Discussion
Do you think nations with low birth rates should provide incentives for people to have more babies? Why or why not?
Source: https://www.independent.co.uk
Measuring Mortality & Migration
Mortality refers to the number of deaths
Demographers use a crude death rate, the number of deaths for every 1,000 people in a population in a given year
Societies with higher proportions of older people should have a higher crude death rate
Migration is the movement of people into and out of specific regions
Domestic migration: happens within a country’s national borders
International migration: happens across national borders
When people move into a region, we call it in-migration or immigration
The in-migration rate is the number of people moving into a region for every 1,000 people in the region
When people move out of a region, we call it out-migration or emigration
The out-migration rate is the number of people moving from the region for every 1,000 people
Overpopulation
During the 1970s, population growth became a major issue in the US and some other nations
Zero Population Growth (ZPG): grassroots organization that tried to raise awareness about the threat of overpopulation; joined with environmental movement
ZPG argued that humans should stop having more babies than they want, and that through education and contraception, birth rates would go down
There was a lot of concern over the rapidly growing population and fear that our “small planet” could not support massive population increases (Ehrlich 1969)
Many experts today argue that overpopulation is directly responsible for hunger and malnutrition across the globe (Gillis 2011)
Population
Thomas Malthus
Mass starvation, overpopulation as a threat
Population increases geometrically (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024…)
Food production increases arithmetically (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6…)
World hunger and overpopulation
Not highly correlated, instead world hunger is due to a lack of affordable and accessible food
Anti-immigrant prejudice in the US
Not about personal economic concerns or state’s rights, instead, related to racial bias and discrimination
Think – Pair – Share
Before taking part in this discussion, did you think that food scarcity was the major reason for world hunger today? Why do you think a belief in food scarcity is so common among people in the US?
Source: https://fee.org/articles/3-common-immigration-myths-debunked/
The Environment
The environment as a topic of sociological study
The most serious environmental problems are due to human activity
Environmental problems have a significant impact on people, the economy, and availability of resources
Change must happen through economic and environmental policies
Environmental problems differentially affect the population based on class, race & ethnicity, etc.
The environmental movement is a social movement
Source: Illustration by Ricardo Levins Morales, https://www.capeandislands.org/post/massachusetts-has-environmental-justice-problem#stream/0
The Environment
Environmental sociology: the study of the interaction between human behavior and the natural and physical environment
Environmental sociology assumes, “that humans are part of the environment and that the environment and society can only be fully understood in relation to each other” (McCarthy & King,2009, p. 1)
Because humans are responsible for the world’s environmental problems, humans have both the ability and responsibility to address these problems
Environmental sociologists emphasize two important dimensions of the relationship between society and the environment:
The impact of human activity and decision making
The existence and consequences of the environmental inequality and environmental racism
The Environment
Environmental inequality: low-income populations and people of color are disproportionately affected by environmental problems
Environmental racism: people of color have a greater likelihood of experiencing problems related to the environment
Environmental justice: the scholarship on environmental inequality, public policy efforts, and activism aimed at reducing these forms of inequality and racism
Environmental Problems
Air pollution, global climate change, water pollution and inadequate sanitation, nuclear power, ground pollution and hazardous waste, oceans, food
Two-Minute Write-Up
How much of the environmental racism that exists do you think is intentional? Explain your answer.
Have you seen examples of environmental racism or classism in your own life?
Addressing Population Problems and Improving the Environment
Sociological-based strategies that could help address population issues
To reduce world hunger, inequalities must be addressed – which inequalities? On what scale?
Better education (especially for women); more effective contraception
Sociological-based strategies that could help improve environmental problems
Must change behaviors and decisions that harm the environment
Must lessen (and hopefully end) the environmental harm experienced by the poor and people of color
Let’s think structurally
