...Population Growth and Ecological Footprints The population size (N) of a species at any point in time (t) is determined by its size at (t-1), its per capita birth rate (b), its per capita death rate (d), and immigration and emigration. Each of these values is, in turn, affected by a huge suite of biotic and abiotic conditions. Human populations are governed by these same variables. In this laboratory, you will use models of population growth to understand how population growth is affected by changes in b and d, and why the actual values of b and d are important. You will also explore some dimensions of human impacts on the environment. A model is a mathematical description of how one thinks a system works. For a population growing at a constant rate, where b and d never change, an appropriate model for population growth is the exponential growth model: dN/dt = rN where r = b – d, assuming that immigration and emigration are negligible. This is a density-independent model since neither b nor d change with increasing population size. Conversely, the logistic model is a density-dependent model, where b and d change with changes in the population size: dN/dt = rN [(K-N)/K] where K = carrying capacity of the environment. In this lab you will use a simple Excel spreadsheet model to explore how population size (N) changes as b and d change under the two different growth models, exponential and logistic. The spreadsheets have areas that you...
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...POPULATION GROWTH AND THE PRESSURES IT PLACES ON EARTHS RESOURCES World population has rapidly increased in the last century and has now reached a staggering seven billion, raising alarming concern for the sustainability of our planet. Rapid population growth and economic development are increasing the demands on natural resource stocks (Orimoogunje, 2011). Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to become the primary source of population increase (United, 2002), yet lack of infrastructure represents one of the most significant limitations to economic growth, environment management and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (Paul M. Pronyk, 2007). Uneven resource consumption is wasteful and contributes to the maldistribution of basic resources in developing countries. Studies show that high income earning countries constitute a smaller number of the population, but consume nature’s resources much faster than developing countries; this adds to the inequality of the world and compromises the stability of our ecosystems to support population growth (Kemp, 2004). The global population is expanding and human resource consumption rates are increasing adding to the environmental problems we face today. During the last century alone, global population in the world has grown from 1.65 billion to 7 billion (World population). In the gap between when my parents were born and I was born the population has roughly doubled from 2.25 billion in the late 1940’s to 4.5 billion in the early...
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...Question 2: Population growth can be defined as “the change in population over a given period of time”. Discuss how and why the population in your country has changed over the last 100 years, and what effects these changes have made on your culture. Population of the nation is very important for its culture. If there are more people who are sharing a culture, then the culture is stronger. But if population starts declining, culture starts dying together with people. It is very difficult to find the valid numbers of population for Ukraine between 17 and 20 century because Ukraine during those times was always divided between many different countries like Poland, Ottoman, Russian and Austrian empires. But today Ukraine is the biggest country by territory in Europe with population over 46 million people. In 1941 Second World War began which killed around 5 million Ukrainians. More than 2 million were departed to Germany for forced labor. Huge amount of cities and villages were destroyed by Germans. More than 10 million people were left without a home. After war Soviet government was doing everything to destroy Ukrainian cultural identity. Ukrainian literature, art and language were band. After boom an economical crisis occurred and was associated with lack of basic commodities as well as great inflation. During this times population growth decreased and cultural development slowed down. In 1991 Ukraine finally became independent and population growth stopped. Because...
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...PERSPECTIVES ON POPULATION GROWTH Based on the current trend, there will be a total to about 9.2 billion people on the earth by mid-century, fuelled by the birth of 220000 children a day and falling mortality rates (Population Institute, 2014). This estimate raises questions about the future of humanity and the planet we inhabit. The debate about an optimal size for human population is one that has waged over the years. The question is fundamentally about sustainability; whether the resources that drive our lives can be sustained indefinitely can support humanity in the long term. We operate on the assumption that, on a finite planet, nothing physical can grow indefinitely. As our population grows, the fewer resources there are for each of us and members of other species with which we share the planet. Because of the finite nature of the resources and the ability of our planet to provide us infinite resources, we need to, carefully consider some aspects of our existence, like our consumption, acceptable living standards, what technologies make best use of the resources available and explore ways to preserve the ecosystems on which we depend. The primary concern regarding rapid global population growth includes aggravated poverty, starvation, water scarcity, political & social instability and depletion of natural resources. How will we feed 9.2 billion people when high food prices and the global economic recession have pushed 100 million more people than last year into...
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...Global Population Growth Accordance to the United Nations demographers, global population already passed 6.9 billion in mid-2010. Also, population life expectancy is consistently rising decline (Engelman, 2010). Many industrial countries are now experiencing either slow population growth or completely. However, a lot of developing countries still continue to grow rapidly their populations to have large proportions of young people for working. Thus, 95 percents of population growth is appears in the developing nations today. Population growth has resulted in overpopulation on a national and world's level. It may limit future economic growth in high-fertility nations while population aging may do so in low-fertility ones. The population growth accelerates continuously increased demand for food, water, shelter, energy, health care, commodities, and careers. The most rapid rates of population increase often in countries where basic necessities are already scarce and that are least economically productivities and least ability to afford imports. Meanwhile, in many industrial and some rapidly developing nations, labor supplies are start to decline proportionally and sometimes completely decline. Many industrial and some developing nations have higher proportions of elderly unprecedented in demographic history, such as Japan which is 23 percents of current 127 million population being older than 64. Even if the life expectancies are expanding, there is no guarantee this phenomenon...
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...Population growth presents the Australian government with many challenges. The changes to the demography of the country will mean slower economic growth as a result of high public demand. It has been argued that population growth is advantageous however, most people would believe that overpopulation has a negative impact on the liveability of Australian cities. The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate that the population growth has had a negative consequences on the liveability and stability of Australian cities. In particular it will focus on the impact of population growth on the liveability and its effect on household incomes, government expenditure and safety of cities. A significant rise in housing costs as a result of population...
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...Human Population Growth The world population growth is defined very simply as the number, or estimated number, of total births in a year, minus the number of total deaths. The difference between these two numbers tells us how many people are being added to the world population each year. To find this number, two types of population growth curves are proposed to explain increases: the exponential growth curve and the logistic growth curve. The exponential growth curve is when the population grows at a constant rate over time. It does not take into account competition, lack of resources, disease, etc. In other words, according to the exponential growth curve, the only thing that controls how fast or slow the population grows is the birth rate. On a more realistic level comes the logistic growth curve. This curve factors in the important reality that states, as the number of individual organisms in the population increases, resources need to increase as well. Also, human population growth HAS changed over time, but these changes were based on numerous factors that included disease, birth rate, economic conditions, etc. However, overall, the human population growth has slowed over the past century and projections indicate that the environment is near its carrying capacity. With this, food production must dramatically increase to keep up with the growing population or our population will be in trouble. While population growth, of any species, may be beneficial to...
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...Population Growth Rates Report With our product being be most successful in a highly populated country, the following are the top ten most populated countries and their growth rates. China is the largest country with a population of 1.3 billion and an annual growth rate of 2.5%. Indian is second with a population of 1.087 billion and an annual growth rate of 1.7%. The United States in the third most populated country with a population of 294 million and an annual growth rate of 0.6%. Indonesia is the fourth most populated country with a population of 218 million and an annual growth rate of 1.6%. Brazil is the fifth most populated country with a population of 179 million and an annual growth rate of 1.3%. Pakistan is the sixth most populated country with an annual growth rate of 159 million and an annual growth rate of 2.4%. Russia is the seventh most populated country with a population of 144 million and an annual growth rate of -0.6%. Bangladesh is the eighth most populated country with a population of 141 million and an annual growth rate of 2.1%. Nigeria is the ninth most populated country with a population of 137 million and an annual growth rate of 2.9%. Japan is the tenth most populated country with a population of 128 million and a annual growth rate of 0.1%. (2004 World Population Data Sheet, 2004, p. 2-12) China, as of 2002, became the largest recipient of foreign direct investment at $53 billion. While this is by far the largest amount, it only represents a per...
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...Josh Evans Ecology and Population Growth SCI/230 Karen Anderko There are approximately 6,947,513,231 billion people now in the world, according to the US Census Bureau. The human population changes depending on vital statistics of birth and deaths and also mechanical social factors such as immigrants and emigrants. This information can change by the year, the day, or second. As of this moment there have been 295,320 births and 135,740 deaths with a net population growth of 159, 840 as of this moment today and that number is steady rising by the second. There are several different estimates of the world’s current population that varies depending on the assumptions of estimates in other countries. It is said that world’s current growth rate is about 1.3% and that number has doubled in the last 5 years. It is also said that the population will double again by the year 2054 to about 12 billion people. If this continues than we are going to exceed our growth capacity on earth and the ability to provide for all our basic needs for survival. With the corruption of our environment the capacity that the earth holds actually decreases over time leaving the environment with the inability to be able to support the people living. The survival of the population correlates with the survival of the environment. There are many things that can impact the ecosystem that carries and provide life for so many people. In order for humans and other organisms to survive we have to consume large...
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...Assignment: Human Population Growth There are two types of population growth and they are expressed in the form of models explaining each theory. The exponential population growth model describes population’s expansive capabilities to an unlimited size and scope. Each generation is calculated using specific factors to formulate the amount of population growth by the births and subtracting deaths over a specified period of time. The rate of a population relies on the growth of the population groupings that are calculated. A population’s size can be greatly reduced or increased by environmental factors. For example, if there is a drought or severe cold weather, population increases can be greatly reduced because of the lack of necessary resources such as food and water. The lack of competition for certain food sources, because of reduced populations, can have the reverse effect on other animals and their populations can be increased. Even though exponential growth is possible, it is not sustainable because eventually the populations will consume all resources that are necessary for the continuing of the species. The logistic population growth model describes the reality that natural environments do have limits to their natural resources that benefit population growth. These limits keep species populations in check and allow only a certain amount of individuals to live successfully in any one environment. The growth rate of populations, in the logistic model, decreases as...
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...Although aspects, such as population growth, health and education were emphasized almost a hundred years ago, for decades some developing countries are still not doing good at their economic development in terms of population growth, health and education. In 2013, the world has a population of about 7.2 billion, and at the same time, it was expected that population would rise by 0.9 billion in 2025 and reach 9.6 billion approximately by the year 2050. Will a developing country become a developed country because of rapid and positive population growth? No in general, rapid population growths in China and India tell us how problems like hunger and health issues are made and such problems lead to economic growth is slower than population growth....
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...Human Population Growth SCI/230 October 26, 2014 The world population growth is defined very simply as the number or estimated number of total births in a given period, usually a year, minus the number of total deaths. The difference between these two numbers tells us how many people are being added to the world population each year. The growth rate is this number divided by the total population and multiplied by 100 to get a percentage. While the world saw an increase in the total human population by more than 80 million in 2010, demographers note that the population growth rate has been declining since the early 1960s. It's in this phenomenon of a declining growth rate that we find the key difference between the two curves. Moreover, one of the two fundamental growth curves proposed to explain increases in human population is the exponential growth curve. This curve assumes that the population growth rate remains fairly constant and that the population will continue to double in an increasingly shorter period of time. It's called an exponential growth curve because it plots the output of an exponential equation. In the years since the early 1960s, observed declines in the rate of population growth -- the percentage of the world population added per year -- began to suggest that population growth is not likely to be exponential. In exponential equations, population growth rate does not slow down, it continues at a constant rate. In the logistic growth curve by contrast...
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...Problems with Population Growth Population change is caused when the birth rate is higher than the death rate, the birth rate is defined as ‘the number of live births per thousand of the population’ and the death rate is defined as ‘the number of live births per thousand of the population’ (Brooks, 2011). As of October 2010 the world’s population reached a total of 6.9 Billion people which is 1.6 Billion more than what it was in 1990 (Brooks, 2011). With the birth rate being much higher than the death rate the government must invest more money in caring for the larger number of elderly people, but they must also invest in catering for the increase number of birth each year. Population growth can have a number of negative effects such as environmental problems, with population growth contributing to almost 7.9% of the world’s environmental problems (Wenner, 2005). Population growth also has effects such as reduction of the world’s resources, and overpopulation of certain areas. In countries such as Tanzania, the economy is growing each year by 6.4 percent, as well as this the population is growing by 2.9 percent per year. The country’s government is concerned that they need to control this fast population growth in order for them to accelerate economic growth. Tanzania’s government have a 5 year plan in place in order for them to reduce the number of maternal deaths to 175 for every 100,000 births (Saiboko, 2012). The huge increase in population growth means that there is...
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...Some of the problems related to population growth Population growth is the increase of people living within an area. We are living in an era of huge population growth (BBC News,2011); the world’s population has grown from 1 billion people in 1804 to 7 billion in 2011 and the world’s population is growing by 200,000 people per day (BBC News 2011). The rapid increase in the world’s population, including future predictions can be seen in figure 1 below. The increased population growth will create many challenges and problems for businesses across the globe. The strain on resources will tighten especially in areas where resources are finite, as a result of increased consumer needs and businesses will need to gather more information to successfully be able to make strategic decisions with an impact. Many supermarkets have introduced ‘self-checkouts’ in order to speed up the shopping process and also the cost of staff. Demographic changes can lead to long term implications for businesses. An ageing population combined with an increased life expectancy puts pressure on the National Health Service (NHS) within the UK. Rapid rates of urbanisation in the developing world causes problems such as traffic congestion, pollution and as a result of the limited infrastructure, slum areas are present. Many people move to the city in search for a job or perceived better quality of life. However not everyone is able to find a job, which increases crime rates within the city...
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...Problems with population growth For two consecutive years since 2009, the population has grown just 0.7% a year, down from annual increases around 1% in previous years and the lowest since the late 1930s. The U.S. gained 2.2 million people from 2010 to 2011, fewer than the 2.8 million added a decade earlier, reaching a total of 311.6 million. (El Nasser, 2012) The recent rapid increase in human population over the past two centuries has raised concerns that the planet may not be able to sustain present or larger numbers of inhabitants. Steve Jones, head of the biology department at University College London, has said, "Humans are 10,000 times more common than we should be". (Gibbens, 2011) Population growth has caused many environmental problems, such as rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, global warming, and pollution, all aggravated by the population expansion. In 1800 the economy passed one billion inhabitants. But the rising numbers are having some serious effects, population growth has already caused climate change, rising sea levels, extinction of wildlife and expanding deserts. Existence has been fuelled by the depleting resources that are fossil fuels, minerals, groundwater, soil, forests and fisheries rather than natural income. (Martin, 2011). Other problems associated with overpopulation include the increased demand for resources such as fresh water and food, starvation and malnutrition, consumption of natural resources faster than the rate of regeneration...
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