Ch. 2 Key Issue 4

1. Ch. 2 Key Issue 4 Why might (not) the world face an overpopulation problem?

2. PANIC! AHH! WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!! • Fears that the world’s population was outpacing the food supply/production • Adding more fields and crops year by year BUT having 2 or 3 babies per family! • Thomas Malthus and Neo-Malthusians vs Marxists

3. Two Viewpoints: • Malthus on overpopulation • An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) • Assumed food production was confined spatially- limited to the land we have and you can only eat what is grown in the country • Today, countries w/o arable land can import most or all of food they need!

4. Two Viewpoints: • Criticism of Malthus includes the following: • Pessimistic (negative) viewpoint • Failure to consider technological innovation • Fertilizers, mechanization • Impact of globalization • Trade between countries to get what they need • Regional instead of global problem???

5. Malthus: Theory & Reality Figure 2-25

6. Controlling Population Growth • NIR can decline for only two reasons: drop in CBR or increase in CDR • I don’t think we would want to see an increase in death rate… • So, what is the most effective way to decrease CBR?

7. Two Ways of Reducing CBR • The country becomes more economically developed (Stage 4-5). • Children are an economic/cultural burden in developed cities • IMR would decrease with improved medicine • Use of contraceptives • Faster results • Diffused by MDCs

8. Problems with Contraceptives • Low status of women keeps them from having a choice to use • Women regard high number of children as having high status in society • Religious opponents • Political reasons- illegal abortions

9. Which method is better? • While contraceptives are a faster method to reducing CBR’s, it faces more roadblocks. • But economic development will take longer (moving from stages 2 and 3 to 4). • Therefore, overpopulation could be seen as a regional problem (specific to one country or area), not a global one…yet?

10. How can Gov’ts affect population change? • 3 policy types: Expansive, eugenic, restrictive • Expansive Policies- encourage large families, raises NIR • Aging and declining countries could institute these policies • Tax breaks and other monetary measures • Russia: $10,000 to women who birth 2nd or 3rd child • Ulyanovsk- National Conception Day (9/12)- Free Car! • Sweden- racier TV shows at night

11. How can Govt’s affect population change? • Eugenic Policies- favors one racial/ethnic group over another • Nazis- Holocaust • US?- pre civil rights treatments of Blacks/AfAms • Japan- nearly homogenous (same) population • Discrimination- taxes, land, etc.

12. How can Govt’s affect population change? • Restrictive policies- reduce the NIR • Toleration of birth control, prohibit large families • China- one-child policy (has been relaxed recently) • Parents were penalized for having two- fines, housing, education • Increased gender selected abortions, orphaned girls and resulted in a gender imbalanced population (why they relaxed it)

14. The Geography of Health • Infant mortality (0-1 years) • Child mortality (1-5 years) • Life expectancy

15. Reasons for Infant Mortality* • More than 1/5 lack access to clean drinking water or human-waste disposal facilities • Can see relation of high IMRs and high CDRs in a country (maps) • Physical health of mother is key • LDC Mothers are: uneducated, exhausted from work, malnourished, suffering from disease • Do not know how to cure diarrhea • Mother’s Index- 10 measurements of well-being for mothers • Confirms poverty is huge factor in health of women and children

19. IMR in US • US is 2nd highest in newborn death rate (die w/in first month) • Premature and low birth weight babies • SIDS • Higher incidences for minorities • Smoking during pregnancies • Regional differences: South highest, West and Northeast lowest

20. Child Mortality • Death of children between 1-5 • Main causes: caloric and protein deficiency early in life

21. Life Expectancy • It is an average- takes into account children who die young and those who live past the average • Lower figures in poor countries represent high IMR • AIDS in Africa keeps life expectancy numbers low in some countries • Again, shows us that children are hit hardest in poorer countries

23. World Health Threats • Higher CDRs have contributed to lower NIRs. • Death from different types of diseases • Health and well-being are closely related to location and environment • Endemics- small area • Pandemics- global

24. Types of Diseases • The different categories of diseases help bring down total population by raising the CDR • The Epidemiologic Transition roughly follows the Dem. Tran. by tracking changes in the leading causes of death (CDR) in each stage of the Dem. Tran.— helps explains why death rate is falling at each stage in the Dem. Tran.

25. Stage 1 • Pestilence and famine • Black Plague • Pandemics • (High CBRs needed to offset high CDRs)

26. Stage 2 • Receding (retreating) pandemics • Improved sanitation and medical advances during the Industrial Revolution decreased the spread of diseases. • (Lowers CDR’s)

27. Stage 3 • Degenerative (gradual deterioration) diseases • Heart disease and cancer • (Slight decrease in CDR)

28. Stage 4 • Delayed degenerative diseases • People can survive cancer and heart attacks through new medical advances • Contagious diseases are less common in stages 3 and 4- medicines and built-up immune system • (Longer life expectancy = aging population)

29. Stage 5? • Predicting the return of contagious diseases which will increase death rates. • Strains of vaccine-resistant illnesses • (CDRs greater than CBRs?)

30. The Most Lethal Infectious Disease: AIDS Figure 2-33