Some Discussion points from Chapter 2:

Population and Global Inequality: (Discussion Points from Chapter 16)

1. There are three components to the study of population—Population Process; Population Structure; and Population Distribution. Process refers to growth (or decline)—fertility rates, mortality rates—and movement (migration). Structure refers to age composition, sex composition, racial and ethnic composition, etc. and Distribution refers to the physical location of populations in a geographic area.

2. The “Poet” Model: is one way of diagramming the ecological complex. http://www.people.vcu.edu/~jmahoney/302lpoet.html . It is a functional model that emphasizes how the variables of Population, Environment, Technology, and Organization are interrelated and how changes in one produce changes in all of the others.

3. Some important statistics: The World Population currently is approaching 6.5 billion people. (Actually, according to the U.S. Census bureau at 9:30 EST on Jan. 31, 2006 there were 298,011,059 people in the U.S. and 6,494,818,973 people in the world. http://www.census.gov/ . The U.S. Population is projected to double by 2100, but the projections vary tremendously from a high of 1.2 billion to a low of 283 million!

Here are some projections from the U.S. Bureau of the Census for the U.S. Population: < http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/usinterimproj/>

Population or percent and race or Hispanic origin	2000	2010	2020	2030	2040	2050
POPULATION
.TOTAL	282,125	308,936	335,805	363,584	391,946	419,854

.White alone	228,548	244,995	260,629	275,731	289,690	302,626
.Black alone	35,818	40,454	45,365	50,442	55,876	61,361
.Asian Alone	10,684	14,241	17,988	22,580	27,992	33,430
.All other races 1/	7,075	9,246	11,822	14,831	18,388	22,437

.Hispanic (of any race)	35,622	47,756	59,756	73,055	87,585	102,560

.White alone, not Hispanic	195,729	201,112	205,936	209,176	210,331	210,283


PERCENT OF TOTAL POPULATION
.TOTAL	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0

.White alone	81.0	79.3	77.6	75.8	73.9	72.1
.Black alone	12.7	13.1	13.5	13.9	14.3	14.6
.Asian Alone	3.8	4.6	5.4	6.2	7.1	8.0
.All other races 1/	2.5	3.0	3.5	4.1	4.7	5.3

.Hispanic (of any race)	12.6	15.5	17.8	20.1	22.3	24.4

.White alone, not Hispanic	69.4	65.1	61.3	57.5	53.7	50.1

Palen (2000) tells us that the doubling time for the world’s population is approximately 47 years. That its rate of increase is 1.4 percent which adds 84 million people to the world each year; 230,000 people each day!

Macionis (p. 399): To find the doubling time of a population simply divide the number 70 by the percentage increase of the population. Central America including Mexico has a growth rate of 2.4 percent which means that its population will double in about 30 years!

4. One thing that we’re sure of is that the current population growth rates cannot be sustained because resources needed to support them are limited. Macionis (p. 398) points out that less than half of all couples world-wide use contraceptives effectively. But still, this represents a dramatic increase since 1980 (Palen, 2000). There is, of course, a very strong relationship between the proportion of a population using contraception and family size (Macionis, P. 398). Still, the world’s population will continue to grow at an alarming rate and by the year 2030, the U.N. projects that the world population will fall somewhere near 8.13 billion people. During this period the U.N. estimates that the population growth rate in developed nations will be .13 and in developing nations it will be 1.15 giving an average growth rate of .97; http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/wup2003/WUP2003.htm

5. Approximately 97 percent of world population growth occurs in developing nations which feeds a cycle of poverty and social unrest. Islamic extremism, for example, feeds on the poverty of the growing masses of impoverished Muslims, world-wide.

6. Three sociological approaches to population: Functionalism, Conflict Theory, Symbolic Interaction. How do they explain population as a social problem? Which actually says that growth is positive and desirable?

7. What is the Demographic Transition? Compare the experience of western industrial nations to that of the developing world today.

8. Marx and Engles denounced Thomas Malthus’ Essay on the Principle of Population as “a blasphemy against man and nature.” Why? Know the basics of Malthus’ theory and the meaning of “positive” and “preventative” checks on population growth.

9. Some statistics to ponder: “The United Nations projects that by 2050 there will be twice as many people as now but three times the amount of food and fibers will be consumed, and energy usage will increase fourfold.” …“Currently the richest 20 percent of the world’s population consumes 86 percent of the world’s goods and services.” (Palen, 2000, p. 155) Given these figures, do you think that the world can sustain these levels of population growth?

10. Why is it today that economists tend to look at population growth as a positive thing while ecologists tend to view it in negative terms?

11. With regard to population control policies in developing countries, does our text take a positive or negative view? Cite examples. Bangladesh is cited as being the most densely populated nation in the world. Forty-five percent of it women practice birth control and the nation’s total fertility rate has declined from 7 children per women to 4 in just 20 years. (Research Bangladesh on the web—Do you think that this significant accomplishment is enough to turn the tide and improve the overall living conditions of the people in that country?)

12. Describe the “Green Revolution.” How has growth in agricultural production compared with population growth in the last decade? What are current trends regarding the world fish catch? What are some of the new developments in aquaculture? Will this be sufficient to meet the world’s demands for fish?

13. Discuss the role of religion and birth control. What is the only major religious body opposed to birth control? Has it been successful in influencing its followers to follow church doctrine in this matter?

14. Compare current immigration to the United States with past trends. Overall, what is the economic impact of immigration on this country, socially and economically?

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