Module 3 - For Midterm Exam

Since the time of the ________, when the world population began growing rapidly, individuals have argued about the causes and consequences of population growth.

In 1798, _______ wrote An Essay on the Principle of Population, changing the way European leaders thought about population growth.

Eventually, he argued, human populations would outstrip their food supply and collapse into starvation, crime, and misery.

He converted most economists of the day from believing that high fertility increased industrial output and national wealth to believing that per capita output fell with rapidly rising population.

_______ collected data to show that populations tended to increase exponentially or compound, while food production either remained stable or increased only slowly.

In Malthusian terms, growing human populations are limited only by _____

However, the economist Karl Marx (1818–1883) presented an opposing view that population growth results from _____, _____, _____, and _____.

Slowing population growth, claimed ______, requires that people be treated justly, and that exploitation and oppression be eliminated from social arrangements.

Both ____ and ____ developed their theories about human population growth when the world, technology, and society were understood much differently than they are today. Some believe that we are approaching, or may have surpassed, the earth’s carrying capacity.

______, a mathematical biologist at Rockefeller University, reviewed published estimates of the maximum human population size the planet can sustain.

The estimates, spanning 300 years of thinking, converged on a median value of 10–12 billion. We are more than ______ strong today, and still growing, an alarming prospect for some. In this view, ______ should be our top priority.

Cornell University entomologist ______, for example, has said, “By 2100, if current trends continue, twelve billion miserable humans will suffer a difficult life on Earth.”

Optimists argue that Malthus was wrong in his predictions of famine and disaster 200 years ago because he failed to account for ______ and _____.

TRUE or FALSE ✔ food supplies have increased faster than population growth since Malthus’s time

TRUE or FALSE ✔ progress in agricultural productivity, engineering, information technology, commerce, medicine, sanitation, and other achievements of modern life have made it possible to support approximately 1,000 times as many people per unit area as was possible 10,000 years ago

TRUE or FALSE Knowing your ecological footprint is essential

Even more unfortunate, developing countries saw a rise, from an average of _____ calories per day in 1970 to _____ in 2015. In that similar period, the world population grew from 3.7 to more than 7 billion people. Indeed, terrible famines have stricken various locations in the past 200 years.

The impact of human activities measured in terms of the area of biologically productive land and water required to produce the goods consumed and to assimilate the wastes generated.

One way to estimate our environmental impacts is to _______. It gives us a single number, called our ecological footprint.

estimates the relative amount of productive land needed to support each of us.

the land and water area NEEDED TO PRODUCE THE RESOURCES we use and to absorb our wastes

the amount of biologically productive AREA THAT IS AVAILABLE TO PROVIDE THE resources we use and to absorb our waste

Footprint = Biocapacity =

Services provided by nature make up a large proportion of our ____________. For example, forests and grasslands store carbon, protect watersheds, purify air and water, and provide habitat for wildlife.