Unit 3 Compilation

Unit 3 Compilation

Chapter 4/Human Populations

Table of Contents

Families in Thailand (textbook website case study)

Current Versus Past Population Growth

Views on Population Growth

Determining Factors of Population Growth

Culture and Fertility

Stabilizing Population Size Through Demographic Transition

Family Planning

The Future We are Creating

Families in Thailand (textbook website case study)

Mechai Viravaidya has been credited with raising awareness of various birth control options and, thus, greatly lowering the annual population growth of Thailand since the 1970s. Prior to this, it was somewhat frowned upon to discuss sex in general in public; which left many completely unaware of the current birth control methods of the time. Viravaidya used his knowledge of persuasion through media outlets to let people in on potential birth control options. He knew, however, that lack of knowledge of birth control was not the only leading cause of large families. Children dying of infectious disease caused many families in poor areas to birth many kids out of fear that many may not survive. Viravaidya (and his organization: Population and Community Development Association; PCDA) brought innovative techniques to these small villages to increase health amongst all in the village; and greatly less death by disease. This too limited lessened the population growth of Thailand greatly.

Current Versus Past Population Growth

http://mindprod.com/image/environment/overpopulation.jpg accessed 4/14/12

Population growth has become significantly apparent in recent years. Amazingly, about five children are born every second; which is much more than deaths per second (being around 2). This accounts for close to 80 billion people being added to our world on an annual basis. This growth rate is still climbing, leaving many wondering when we will peak and when the population size will begin to decline. 

Throughout our history, population growth has generally been growing (with the exception of plagues and serious epidemics). However, until recently, this growth rate was substantially slow. It wasn’t until the industrial revolution that this growth climbed rapidly in short time (adding multiple billions in less than 2 centuries). Many fear this perpetual rise in population levels believing that we will deplete our natural resources and potentially create an unlivable environment on this planet. Others still, however, believe that a constant rise in population levels will only increase the amount of geniuses and progress in general as a species. 

Views on Population Growth

Population growth and its potential drawbacks have been an issue up for debate for quite some time now. Even in the mid seventeen hundreds Thomas Malthus wrote an essay aimed at raising awareness for the potential lack of resources and food supply based on too high of a population. Since then, and especially since the industrial revolution, our population has grown drastically. A mathematical biologist of Rockefeller University came to the conclusion that the amount of people that our world is capable of sustaining is somewhere between 10 and 12 billion people Being that we are currently around 7 billion people worldwide, and growing rapidly, this is of major concern for the longevity of our species. 

http://www.thwink.org/sustain/articles/011_IPAT_Equation/IPAT_Equation.png accessed 4/14/12

Luckily, with the rise in population that came with the industrial revolution also brought a boom in technological advancement. Through progress in research in technology, we are continually being able to feed and keep healthy more and more people. Population growth also gives us more workers and more overall intelligence. However, because technology relies on natural resources to exist, with more technology used, more resources are in turn being used. This ideal is summarized in the I = PAT formula (I-product of our population size, P-times affluence, A-and technology, T-used to produce goods and services we consume. A person who uses vast amounts of technology and material consumption can be more detrimental to our world than large amounts of people truly living off of the land (farms, etc.). 

Determining Factors of Population Growth

There are two prominent demographics contributing to population factors; these being, poor, young, and growing immensely, as well as, old, rich, and declining in population. Some thriving features in population growth seem to revolve around various locations around the world. Many poorer countries and less developed countries (e.g. Africa) are birthing many children per woman; largely due to lack of birth control options. On the other hand, richer and older countries (e.g. Western Europe) are showing to have a steadily declining population size. Reasoning for this can include couples choosing to have just one or even no children. 

However, richer countries aren’t the only ones with a declining population size. Certain epidemics causing large death rates are taking place in areas such as Russia; due to various reasons such as severe pollution, crime, corruption, etc. Areas in Africa are also experiencing a decline largely due to the spreading of AIDS; killing people at an alarming rate. 

Fertility rates (number of children per woman) are a major factor in determining population growth. In many more developed areas of the world, it’s natural for a woman to have between 0 and 2 children; while in other areas (generally poorer areas) a woman may birth upwards of 7 or more children. Fertility rates can largely be linked to various culture styles and religious beliefs. 

http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/human_pop/glofert.gif accessed 4/14/12

Another major factor in our growing world population is found in our current human life expectancies. Although the average life span of a healthy human has not changed much throughout history (our bodies simply wear out and deteriorate naturally over time), the length to which people live throughout the world has risen greatly. This is greatly due to innovations in health care and medicine, as well as, largely due to nutrition, sanitation, and overall education. As we’ve grown to learn more and more of our bodies, we’ve found healthy ways to further our existence in fairly recent years. In Japan alone, the average life expectancy is about 75 years, which has risen 10 years from only 2 decades ago. 

Culture and Fertility

Pronatalist pressures (reasons that increase people’s desire to have children) vary from culture to culture. It is no doubt that often times people want to have children simply out of the sheer joy of raising offspring. However, other factors have proven to be legitimate reasons as well. In a poor family, the more children you have, the more workers you have to help put food on the table and also take care of chores and other work. Also, in many areas of the world, children care for there elderly when they can no longer care for themselves. Thus, if a person had no children, they may be struggling to survive in their elder years. Another more primal factor is in that males often feel the need to pass on their genes as much as possible; this is especially prevalent in areas such as Niger and Cameroon.

On a separate note, education has shown to affect fertility rates. In the early 1900s, when women were given more opportunity for education and careers, birth rates dropped degrees. While career oriented women will still certainly have the instinctive want for a child, their priorities may shift towards independence and financial stability in certain circumstances. Even if a highly career oriented woman did choose to have children, if she wants her job to remain a prominent part of her life, the likelihood of her birthing vast amounts of children is lessened. 

Stabilizing Population Size Through Demographic Transition

Transition from lower birth and death rates to higher birth and death rates is described as demographic transition. A growth or decline in population is generally closely linked to economic development. An example of these shifting birth and death rates is well described in the following graph below (pg. 90).

http://www.marathon.uwc.edu/geography/demotrans/stagesII.gif accessed 4/14/12

Urbanization will cause shifting of birth and death rates throughout a period of time until both stabilize and are generally low on both ends. It is believed that, currently, many areas are in the process of demographic transition, and thus, (hopefully) our world population will stabilize sometime in the near future. Various factors such as advanced technology bringing major advancements to developing areas, as well as, the fact that we’ve witnessed demographic transitions take place and thus have a model to follow are helpful tools to utilize in stabilizing populations. 

Family Planning

Planning the number of children per family is an important and legitimate way of reducing world populations and limiting the potential for overpopulation. While we have had a major growth in birth rate in the last two centuries, this has not been the case throughout history (but rather most likely due to the industrial revolution and a boom in technology). Controlling fertility is not a strictly modern practice. Even in ancient times various birthing regulations were implemented (e.g. abortion, celibacy, medicines). Today, with our constant rise in technology comes constant and innovative ways of controlling fertility. While celibacy and abortion are still two leading contenders, we now have the option of condom use as well as various pills and even shots to control chances of birthing. We currently have access to more birth control options than ever before in history, thus, family planning should be easier than it ever has been. 

The Future We are Creating

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/adam_werbach/Werbach_Population_5-24_banner.jpg accessed 4/14/12

Many people have varying ideas of when our world population will stabilize and how heavily populated our world will be at this time. However, what we can say is that changes need to be made on a mass scale to ensure a lessened global population. Luckily, our global average fertility rate has lessened tenfold in the last fifty years. Due to perpetual improvements in birth control options (causing much easier and convenient family planning techniques) we can hope that this decline continues. Awareness and change are factors to implement and rely on in order to keep from overpopulating our world. 

Chapter 14/Economics and Urbanization (14.1-14.3, 14.5 only)

Table of Contents

Big Watershed and Sustainable Development (textbook website case study)

Cities Hold Both Opportunity and Crisis

Planning of Urban Areas

Sustainable Development and Economics

Jobs, Development, Etc.

Big Watershed and Sustainable Development (textbook website case study)

The Jiangxi Province (located in China) is a great example of once thoughtless environmental behavior turned around into progressive sustainable development. For a long period, the people occupying the Jiangxi Province cared only about economic development with absolutely no focus on detriments to the environment. Such neglect led to serious erosion issues which lessened the water level in their lake greatly by the year. In the 1980’s, they implemented a sustainable development plan in efforts to maintain what was left of their land, as well as, strive to bring back some of it’s original features. Through various steps in their MRL Program, much successes have been made, as well as serving as inspiration to others in how progressive a sustainable development plan can be. 

Cities Hold Both Opportunity and Crisis

As our world population grows constantly, more and more people are living in large cities (more than ever before). Currently, more than half of the world population lives in cities, and this number is expected to grow exponentially in the near future. While cities are certainly consuming major amounts of resources (most notably, mega-cities, which occupy over 10 million people) they are also the stomping ground of innovation and technology. Cities are where ideas are brought to life. Also, if our world population was spread throughout the countryside, this could be far more detrimental to our environment than having congested areas of high-population cities. 

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/adam_werbach/Werbach_Population_5-24_banner.jpg accessed 4/14/12

In just over ten years, cities worldwide are expected to grow tenfold, many being still in still developing areas (e.g. Mumbai, India; Karachi, Pakistan; Jakarta, Indonesia). China alone plans to build upwards of 400 urban areas with populations exceeding 500,000 in our near future. Amazingly, the current plans for these developing cities are aiming at being highly eco-friendly. They are aiming to be self-sufficient in energy, water, and most food products, as well as, shooting for zero emissions of greenhouse gases from transportation. 

With larger amounts of people comes major amounts of waste and pollution issues, especially among still developing cities. China, with it’s major cities, has become the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gases; it even holds 16 of worlds 20 cities with the worst air pollution. This terrible air pollution has even been attributed to 400,000 premature deaths per year. On top of air pollution, many of the world’s cities are facing other drastic (even fatal in extreme cases) problems and health hazards; such as lack of sufficient sewage and major water shortages, as well as, a lack of sufficient housing. Simply providing water and proper sewage for these areas could greatly improve living conditions among these poor, city livers. 

Planning of Urban Areas

One of the most important factors to implement in city growth is proper planning of urban areas. Transportation is a major factor of concern among people in general. While automobiles have given us the luxury individual transportation, they also account for widespread pollution and many car accidents (often fatal). There are more innovative ways to approach transportation importance, such as the mass transit buses found in Curitiba, Brazil. Everyone in the city is within walking distance to a bus stop, and they come at an affordable price. Other cities have implemented metro lines with a similar purpose of moving mass amounts of people for a cheap cost. 

http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/images/awards2004/sg_awards04_cover2.jpg accessed 4/14/12

Another innovative way of planning our urban cities is to implement smart growth. Smart growth is described: as making effective use of land resources and existing infrastructure by encouraging in-fill development that avoids costly duplication of services and inefficient land use. It is aimed at being a more eco-friendly growth factor which uses the land in a less wasteful manner. Many current cities are attempting to redesign metropolitan areas to make them fit the idea behind smart growth. Some examples include: maintain greenbelts in and around cities for recreational space and limiting air pollution; locate shopping and services so people can meet their daily needs with less stress and automobile dependency; encourage walking or use of low speed and low energy vehicles.

Sustainable Development and Economics

Sustainable development, or meeting the needs of of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, is an important part of innovative city growth. However, whether or not this is possible lies very much economics. 

Classical economics, developed in the 1700’s, assumes that natural resources are finite; that they exist in fixed amounts. It also states that as populations grow, resources are limited and competition ensues. The more scare a product, the more expensive and the more competition to get it.

Neoclassical economics, developed in the nineteenth century, expanded this ideal of resources to also include labor, knowledge, and capitol (any form of wealth that contributes to the production of more wealth). Knowledge and labor, while not finite, were viewed as resources through neoclassical economics because of their high importance in creating the goods and services. Neoclassical economics also put high importance on growth through goods and services; resulting in more capitol. Popular in neoclassical economics is the idea that a resource can be substituted with another in order to maintain capitol if one resource is used up completely.

Ecological economics places high importance on ecosystem functions for the longevity and continuation of human economies and culture. Unlike neoclassical economics, in ecological economics a natural resource is highly important and none can be substituted to replace another. High priority is placed recycling of resources their constant continuation. 

Jobs, Development, Etc. 

http://www.airforce-technology.com/contractor_images/iso-group/flags-international-trade-400.jpg accessed 4/14/12

International trade can have positive, as well as, negative effects. In terms of positive effects, international trade can stimulate growth in suffering economies when such a place has steady access to a particular resource. If an area has steady access to a resource, they can sell it much cheaper than other areas, and thus, create a steady flow of income for their economy. Unfortunately, many other countries don’t have as strict of environmental laws as does the U.S., so in purchasing some of these goods, we may also be contributing to the pollution created by its factories. 

Chapter 13/Solid and Hazardous Waste

Table of Contents

Waste Disposal at Yucca Mountain (textbook website case study)

Waste That We Produce

Ways of Disposing Our Waste

Lessening Waste

Toxic and Hazardous Wastes

Waste Disposal at Yucca Mountain (textbook website case study)

Yucca Mountain area, located in Nevada, has been decided to be one of the best permanent storage areas for massive amounts of nuclear waste. This nuclear waste has been growing and growing in temporary storage areas throughout the country (some of them highly inadequate for storage purposes) and needs to be transported elsewhere to an area of permanent storage. While the Yucca Mountain area seems to be one of the best locations for such a storage of hazardous waste, many are arguing that this location, like most land throughout the country, is not reliable for such storage. At least 30 faults have been discovered by critics in terms of adequacy of location, while others feel that this location will successfully hold this waste for a minimum of 10,000 years. If this passes as permanent storage for such waste, plans for more nuclear power plants to suppose to ensue. 

Waste That We Produce

We produce mass amounts of various forms of waste with each passing year. On average, we produce around 3.6 tons of waste per person, per year. This waste comes in forms of agricultural waste, industrial waste, municipal solid waste, as well as others. While agricultural waste and industrial waste can often be reused, municipal solid waste is hard to reuse due to being composed of many different materials. While it accounts for a fairly small percentage of waste in the grand scheme of things, it still adds up to be a massive amount per year. 

http://www.euless.org/recycling/images/waste_stream_graph.jpg accessed 4/14/12

The waste stream describes the flow of wastes compiled through households, sewage plants, commercial businesses, and all in between. It describes all waste produced. Unfortunately, there are many reusable waste products which get saturated too much with other non-reusable materials and essentially get lost and discarded with the rest of our waste. Better methods of recycling could be extremely beneficial to this cause.

Ways of Disposing Our Waste

Unfortunately, some of the most common ways of disposing waste are not the most environmentally friendly by any means. One of the worst disposing methods is open dumping. In extreme cases, open dumping consumes a large area of land, where it is simply exposed to air, wind, rain, as well as, various animals (e.g. rats, flies). This is common in less developed areas. Often, people even work on these massive heaps of trash in search of recyclable materials or even edible materials. While this is less common in the U.S., as well as other more developed areas, littering can account for major pollution problems. In simply throwing trash onto the ground, it has the potential to enter sewers, and then possibly reach the ocean. 

Ocean dumping has become a major problem throughout the world. Until fairly recently, many U.S. cities simply dumped various forms of waste into our oceans. This has an extremely terrible affect on much of the sea life and organisms which thrive around oceans. Plastic waste has even accumulated in the Pacific ocean to the size of Texas. 

Sanitary landfills serve as a better method for disposing waste than open dumping, however, they are still creating various hazards. They are designed to contain trash, keeping out of the wind, and striving to keep most animals out of it. Yet, they do create immense amounts of methane and because of this, serve as close to 12 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. 

Much of the global waste is exported to less developed countries to be dumped. Most notably, this happens with e-waste. E-waste describes the waste from various electronic equipment (televisions, game consoles, etc.), to which much of these components become out-dated in a matter of only a few years. Some of this e-waste can contain such hazardous and pollution causing materials as mercury, gallium, nickel, palladium, beryllium, etc. 

http://www.e-steamboilers.com/images/incinerator_1.jpg accessed 4/14/12

Another form of waste disposal is found in incineration, or energy recovery. These incinerators create energy through the burning of various wastes (enough to generate electricity for entire buildings). While these incinerators are much more progressive and effective in terms of reducing waste, they come at a hefty price (upwards of 300 million dollars) and also create various health hazards. Some of the ash created through burning trash with incinerators can have high levels of dioxins, furans, lead, etc.. Ways to reduce this hazard would be to make sure various wastes (e.g. batteries) are not included with burned waste. 

Lessening Waste

One of the best possible ways of reducing the constant flow in the waste stream is through recycling. Recycling saves money, energy, land space, and pollution (when compared to the previously mention waste disposal methods). We have come a long way in terms of recycling in the last few decades, and hopefully this will continue. However, people still fail to recycle, for no good reason. Aluminum is incredibly easy to recycle, yet very difficult to extract fresh and still thousands of tons of aluminum are thrown in with the trash annually. It has become so easy to recycle in our towns and cities, yet still people don’t. Luckily, increasingly more people are catching on every year. 

Composting, or breakdown of organic matter in aerobic conditions, is another progressive way of reducing our waste stream. This method, in turn, can also create nutrient rich compost for yards and gardens. 

Even better than recycling is simply reusing products. This cuts out the cost of having to breakdown the product into another usable product. There are various (sometimes innovative) ways we can use products or containers over again to limit our waste stream. A couple ways I do this include: reusing glass bottles for beer making, reusing plastic bottles for water, reusing plastic containers for food storage or other storage. There are countless ways everyone can implement this into their lives. 

Lastly, and most importantly, is the importance of reducing and its powerful effect on limiting waste. Ways in which companies can reduce are to use less of a material to create the same product. This, in turn, saves them money and energy, and also, allows for more the the resource to still be available. 

Toxic and Hazardous Wastes 

Hazardous and toxic waste are the most dangerous part of our waste stream. A hazardous waste is known as any discarded material, liquid, or solid, which contains materials that can be: fatal to humans or lab animals in low doses, toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, or teratogenic to humans or other life, ignitable with a flash point less than 60 degrees, and/or explosive or highly reactive. Most of this is correctly disposed of in factories or recycled into a non-hazardous form, however, the small amounts that enter the waste stream are extremely detrimental to our environment.

Luckily, two strict federal laws regulate hazardous waste management and disposal in our country. These two laws are known as the RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act) and the CERCLA or Superfund Act. Various rules included with each law keep hazardous waste disposal regulated to a strict degree. 

There are ways of creating far less of these hazardous and toxic wastes that simple procedures can allow for. Recycling and reusing various wastes are important ways of limiting hazardous waste. Certain waste of one product may be of value in another industry. Such waste recycling management would greatly reduce our amount of annual hazardous waste produced. Another option is to convert hazardous substances into less hazardous ones. Ways of doing this can include physical treatments and chemical processing. 

http://www.dreamstime.com/toxic-waste-barrels-thumb3219585.jpg accessed 4/14/12

Certain hazardous waste products simply can’t be recycled, reused, or made less hazardous. These particular waste products must be stored permanently and safely in either permanent retrievable storage or secure landfills. 

Chapter 9/Air: Climate and Pollution (9.1-9.3 only)

Table of Contents 

Economists Can Control Climate Change (textbook website case study)

Our Atmosphere

Changes in Climate Through Time

Is the Climate Changing Faster Now?

Economists Can Control Climate Change (textbook website case study)

New ways of implementing global warming reduction strategies have been brought forth by economists. One of the prominent sources of global warming is through C02 emissions into our atmosphere; this C02 retains heat more so than other chemicals, and when released on a mass scale, can serve as a leading cause of climate change. Economists have brought forth the idea of “carbon trading” in hopes of reducing carbon output per country. The strategy is to put a limit on the amount of carbon released. If a country goes over their limit, they will have to pay a fine. While if a country is under their limit they will receive “carbon credits.” These carbon credits can be sold to other countries with higher C02 emissions. These carbon credits will be sold on the open market just as any stock would be and the price will be agreed upon through the buyers and sellers. 

Our Atmosphere

Our earth’s atmosphere consists of various gas molecules which surround the earth. Among the earth’s atmosphere, there are four separate temperature zones. Temperatures, wind, as well as, precipitation on a daily basis is referred to as weather; while long-term temperatures and precipitation are referred to as our climate. The zone closest to the surface of earth is called the troposphere; here, air circulates in convection currents which constantly distribute heat and moisture around our world. It also contains about 75 percent of the total mass within our atmosphere. Above this zone is the stratosphere, which is much more dilute than the troposphere. It is also a very calm atmospheric zone which absorbs many UV rays; protecting us greatly from them. After the stratosphere comes the mesosphere and then the thermosphere at the end of our earth’s atmosphere.  

http://apollo.lsc.vsc.edu/classes/met130/notes/chapter1/graphics/vert_temp.gif accessed 4/14/12

We gain vast energy through our atmosphere from the sun. While much of this energy is absorbed by our atmosphere, much it is absorbed by the earth itself. Certain surfaces reflect this energy and are referred to as having high albedo (these include fresh snow, dense clouds, sand, etc.). 

There are also various ways in which our earth finds ways of redistributing heat. One these ways is through water vapor; when water vapor is present in the air, it stores 580 energy calories per gram, this stored heat is referred to as latent heat. Globally, this water vapor accounts for major amounts of energy. Another form of heat redistribution is through ocean currents. Ocean currents greatly influence our earth’s climate conditions on land. 

Changes in Climate Through Time

Our earth’s climate in not as stable as we think it is. There have been various climate changes throughout the history of our planet. One of the ways in which we can measure this is through ice cores. Through drilling into ice sheets, we can measure various changes in climate, as well as, recognize periodic volcanic eruptions and isotopes of oxygen. A persistent warming of our climate has been predicted by many; many of which believe we will soon have a record warm climate in our earth’s history. Various things can change our earth’s climate, such as volcanic eruptions or oscillation. In particular, El Nino caused a major shift in climate. 

Is the Climate Changing Faster Now?

While studies of climate change have been taking place for some time now, we currently are coming to the understanding that our climate is warming at a fairly drastic rate. It has warmed exponentially from the 1950’s, and scientists believe that this will only continue to progressively occur. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), composed of scientists from all over the world, have come to the conclusion that this climate change is certainly due to human activity (studies show that they are 99% sure of this). It is believed that this quickly warming climate will result in extreme heat waves, rising sea levels (melting glaciers).

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/49/Global_Warming_Observed_CO2_Emissions_from_fossil_fuel_burning_vs_IPCC_scenarios.jpg/220px-Global_Warming_Observed_CO2_Emissions_from_fossil_fuel_burning_vs_IPCC_scenarios.jpg accessed 4/14/12

Some of the direct evidence of global warming is extreme. Temperatures in some of our coldest countries have risen by as much as 7 degrees (F). Over the last 150 years, the warmest years have been in the last 20 years. Arctic sea ice has depleted greatly (it is only half as thick now compared to 30 years ago. Storms are becoming stronger and more damaging. Entire glacier mountains are melting completely. By the year 2100, this global warming could raise sea levels by upwards of 6 feet if action isn’t taken. 

While climate changes have happened in the past, they have never happened to the level that they are currently occurring. If we don’t make changes now, we will be forced to make changes in the future.