SOC101 - Module 7 - Week 1 - Population, Urbanization, and the Environment

The field of ________ studies the way humans interact with their environments. It focuses specifically on the relationship between people and their built and natural environment.

Environmental sociology

When it comes to getting rid of dangerous toxins, neither ________ is a good choice. Improper treatment risks an increase in groundwater contamination.

landfill and incineration

________ is the movement of people into and out of an area and may take the form of movement into an area to take up permanent residence, or movement out of an area to another place of permanent residence.

migration

The ________ is a measure of the number of people who die.

mortality rate

For example, over about 200 years from the mid-1670s to the early 1900s, London experienced increased ________ from 550,000 to 7 million people.

population growth

During the Industrial Era, there was a ________ worldwide. The development of factories brought people from rural to urban areas, and new technology increased the efficiency of transportation, food production, and food preservation.

population growth spurt

According to NASA scientists, the overall trend of worldwide temperatures is increasing and ________ was the hottest year since record-keeping began in 1880.

2015

The population of the planet doubled in fifty years to reach _______ in 1999?

6 billion

Describe demographic measurements, read population graphs, and describe demographic theories

Between 2011 and 2012, we reached a population milestone of 7 billion humans on the earth's surface. The rapidity with which this happened demonstrated an exponential increase from the time it took to grow from 5 billion to 6 billion people. In short, the planet is filling up. How quickly will we go from 7 billion to 8 billion? How will that population be distributed? Where is population the highest? Where is it slowing down? Where will people live? To explore these questions, we turn to demography, or the study of populations. Three of the most important components that affect the issues above are fertility, mortality, and migration. The fertility rate of a society is a measure noting the number of children born. The fertility number is generally lower than the fecundity number, which measures the potential number of children that could be born to women of childbearing age. Sociologists measure fertility using the crude birthrate (the number of live births per 1,000 people per year). Just as fertility measures childbearing, the mortality rate is a measure of the number of people who die. The crude death rate is a number derived from the number of deaths per 1,000 people per year. When analyzed together, fertility and mortality rates help researchers understand the overall growth occurring in a population. Another key element in studying populations is the movement of people into and out of an area. Migration may take the form of immigration, which describes movement into an area to take up permanent residence, or emigration, which refers to movement out of an area to another place of permanent residence. Migration might be voluntary (as when college students study abroad), involuntary (as when Syrians evacuated war-torn areas), or forced (as when many Native American tribes were removed from the lands they'd lived in for generations).Changing fertility, mortality, and migration rates make up the total population composition, a snapshot of the demographic profile of a population. This number can be measured for societies, nations, world regions, or other groups. The population composition includes the sex ratio, the number of men for every hundred women, as well as the population pyramid, a picture of population distribution by sex and age.Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) was an English clergyman who made dire predictions about earth's ability to sustain its growing population. According to Malthusian theory, three factors would control human population that exceeded the earth's carrying capacity, or how many people can live in a given area considering the amount of available resources. Malthus identified these factors as war, famine, and disease (Malthus 1798). He termed them "positive checks" because they increase mortality rates, thus keeping the population in check. They are countered by "preventive checks," which also control the population but by reducing fertility rates; preventive checks include birth control and celibacy. Thinking practically, Malthus saw that people could produce only so much food in a given year, yet the population was increasing at an exponential rate. Eventually, he thought people would run out of food and begin to starve. They would go to war over increasingly scarce resources and reduce the population to a manageable level, and then the cycle would begin anew.A neo-Malthusian researcher named Paul Ehrlich brought Malthus's predictions into the twentieth century. However, according to Ehrlich, it is the environment, not specifically the food supply, that will play a crucial role in the continued health of planet's population (Ehrlich 1968). Ehrlich's ideas suggest that the human population is moving rapidly toward complete environmental collapse, as privileged people use up or pollute a number of environmental resources such as water and air. He advocated for a goal of zero population growth (ZPG), in which the number of people entering a population through birth or immigration is equal to the number of people leaving it via death or emigration. While support for this concept is mixed, it is still considered a possible solution to global overpopulation.Of course, some theories are less focused on the pessimistic hypothesis that the world's population will meet a detrimental challenge to sustaining itself. Cornucopian theory scoffs at the idea of humans wiping themselves out; it asserts that human ingenuity can resolve any environmental or social issues that develop. As an example, it points to the issue of food supply. If we need more food, the theory contends, agricultural scientists will figure out how to grow it, as they have already been doing for centuries. After all, in this perspective, human ingenuity has been up to the task for thousands of years and there is no reason for that pattern not to continue (Simon 1981).Whether you believe that we are headed for environmental disaster and the end of human existence as we know it, or you think people will always adapt to changing circumstances, we can see clear patterns in population growth. Societies develop along a predictable continuum as they evolve from unindustrialized to postindustrial. Demographic transition theory (Caldwell and Caldwell 2006) suggests that future population growth will develop along a predictable four-stage model. In Stage 1, birth, death, and infant mortality rates are all high, while life expectancy is short. An example of this stage is the 1800s in the United States. As countries begin to industrialize, they enter Stage 2, where birthrates are higher while infant mortality and the death rates drop. Life expectancy also increases. Afghanistan is currently in this stage. Stage 3 occurs once a society is thoroughly industrialized; birthrates decline, while life expectancy continues to increase. Death rates continue to decrease. Mexico's population is at this stage. In the final phase, Stage 4, we see the postindustrial era of a society. Birth and death rates are low, people are healthier and live longer, and society enters a phase of population stability. Overall population may even decline. For example, Sweden is considered to be in Stage 4.

Together, the suburbs, exurbs, and metropolitan areas often all combine to form ________ as the city continues to sprawl. You were correct. Multiple Choice Questiongentrificationhuman ecologyconcentric zones

Concentric zones

What are ways that human activity impacts the water supply?

Creating sewage Spreading chemicals Increasing radioactivity All of the above

________ is the study of populations.

Demography

In the concentric zone model, Zone B is likely to house what?

Formerly wealthy homes split into cheap apartments

What are the prerequisites for the existence of a city?

Good environment with water and a favorable climate Advanced agricultural technology Strong social organization All of the above

What are the two primary methods of waste disposal?

Landfill and incineration

How does gentrification affect cities?

Less affluent residents are pushed into less desirable areas.

According to ________, it is the environment, not specifically the food supply, that will play a crucial role in the continued health of planet's population.

Paul Erlich's theory

Cities have continued to evolve from manufacturing-based industrial areas to service- and information-based ________ and societies.

Post-industrial cities

Where does a large percentage of e-waste wind up?

Recycled in peripheral nations

What is not a negative outcome of shoreline dredging?

Reduction of human population

What does cornucopian theory believe?

That human ingenuity will solve any issues that overpopulation creates

What does carrying capacity refer to?

The amount of life that can be supported sustainably in a particular environment

The "tragedy of the commons" is a reference to what?

The common grazing lands in Oxford

Which is an example of environmental racism?

The fact that a disproportionate percentage of people of color live in environmentally hazardous areas

What does human ecology theory address?

The relationship between humans and their environments

Understand the impact of climate change and pollution on the environment and society

The subfield of environmental sociology studies the way humans interact with their environments. This field is closely related to human ecology, which focuses on the relationship between people and their built and natural environment. This is an area that is garnering more attention as extreme weather patterns and policy battles over climate change dominate the news. A key factor of environmental sociology is the concept of carrying capacity, which describes the maximum amount of life that can be sustained within a given area. While this concept can refer to grazing lands or to rivers, we can also apply it to the earth as a whole.While you might be more familiar with the phrase "global warming," climate change is the term now used to refer to long-term shifts in temperatures due to human activity and, in particular, the release of greenhouse gases into the environment. The planet as a whole is warming, but the term climate change acknowledges that the short-term variations in this process can include both higher and lower temperatures, despite the overarching trend toward warmth. Climate change is a deeply controversial subject, despite decades of scientific research and a high degree of scientific consensus that supports its existence. For example, according to NASA scientists, 2013 tied with 2009 and 2006 as the seventh-warmest year since 1880, continuing the overall trend of increasing worldwide temperatures (NASA 2014). More recently, NASA scientists have noted that 2015 surface temperatures were the warmest ever seen since we began keeping records in 1880 (NASA, NOAA 2015). One effect of climate change is more extreme weather. There are increasingly more record-breaking weather phenomena, from the number of Category 4 hurricanes to the amount of snowfall in a given winter. These extremes, while they make for dramatic television coverage, can cause immeasurable damage to crops, property, and even lives.Pollution describes what happens when contaminants are introduced into an environment (water, air, land) at levels that are damaging. Environments can often sustain a limited amount of contaminants without marked change, and water, air, and soil can "heal" themselves to a certain degree. However, once contaminant levels reach a certain point, the results can be catastrophic. Water Look at your watch. Wait fifteen seconds. Then wait another fifteen seconds. In that time, two children have died from lack of access to clean drinking water. Access to safe water is one of the most basic human needs, and it is woefully out of reach for millions of people on the planet. Many of the major diseases that peripheral countries battle, such as diarrhea, cholera, and typhoid, are caused by contaminated water. Often, young children are unable to go to school because they must instead walk several hours a day just to collect potable water for their family. The situation is only getting more dire as the global population increases. Water is a key resource battleground in the twenty-first century.ou might have read The Grapes of Wrath in English class at some point in time. Steinbeck's tale of the Joads, driven out of their home by the Dust Bowl, is still playing out today. In China, as in Depression-era Oklahoma, over-tilling soil in an attempt to expand agriculture has resulted in the disappearance of large patches of topsoil. Soil erosion and desertification are just two of the many forms of soil pollution. In addition, all the chemicals and pollutants that harm our water supplies can also leach into soil with similar effects. Brown zones where nothing can grow are common results of soil pollution. One demand the population boom makes on the planet is a requirement for more food to be produced. The so-called "Green Revolution" in the 1960s saw chemists and world aid organizations working together to bring modern farming methods, complete with pesticides, to developing countries. The immediate result was positive: food yields went up and burgeoning populations were fed. But as time has gone on, these areas have fallen into even more difficult straits as the damage done by modern methods leave traditional farmers with less than they had to start. Dredging certain beaches in an attempt to save valuable beachfront property from coastal erosion has resulted in greater storm impact on shorelines, and damage to beach ecosystems (Turneffe Atoll Trust 2008). These dredging projects have damaged reefs, sea grass beds, and shorelines and can kill off large swaths of marine life. Ultimately, this damage threatens local fisheries, tourism, and other parts of the local economy.Where is your last cell phone? What about the one before that? Or the huge old television set your family had before flat screens became popular? For most of us, the answer is a sheepish shrug. We don't pay attention to the demise of old items, and since electronics drop in price and increase in innovation at an incredible clip, we have been trained by their manufacturers to upgrade frequently. Garbage creation and control are major issues for most core and industrializing nations, and it is quickly becoming one of the most critical environmental issues faced in the United States. People in the United States buy products, use them, and then throw them away. Did you dispose of your old electronics according to government safety guidelines? Chances are good you didn't even know there are guidelines. Multiply your electronics times a few million, take into account the numerous toxic chemicals they contain, and then imagine either burying those chemicals in the ground or lighting them on fire. Those are the two primary means of waste disposal in the United States: landfill and incineration. When it comes to getting rid of dangerous toxins, neither is a good choice. Styrofoam and plastics that many of us use every day do not dissolve in a natural way. Burn them, and they release carcinogens into the air. Their improper incineration (intentional or not) adds to air pollution and increases smog. Dump them in landfills, and they do not decompose. As landfill sites fill up, we risk an increase in groundwater contamination. WHAT SHOULD APPLE (AND FRIENDS) DO ABOUT E-WASTE?

How are the suburbs of Paris different from those of most U.S. cities?

They are synonymous with housing projects and urban poor.

Sociologists suggest that ________ was inaccurate because of technological increases in food production which have increased both the amount and quality of calories we can produce per person, human ingenuity which has developed new medicine to curtail death from disease, and the development and widespread use of contraception and other forms of family planning which have decreased the speed at which our population increases.

Thomas Malthous' theory

Sociologists believe we are continuing to expand the planet's population past the predictions of ________ even though he believed that ample resources to support the earth's population would soon run out.

Thomas Malthus' theory

In 2014, what was the largest city in the world?

Tokyo

What types of municipal projects often result in environmental racism?

Toxic dumps or other objectionable projects

Urbanization includes the sociological study of what?

Urban economics Urban politics Urban environments All of the above Show Answer

What led to the creation of the exurbs?

Urban sprawl and crowds moving into the city

Describe the growth of cities and the process of urbanization

Urbanization is the study of the social, political, and economic relationships in cities, and someone specializing in urban sociology studies those relationships. In some ways, cities can be microcosms of universal human behavior, while in others they provide a unique environment that yields its own brand of human behavior. There is no strict dividing line between rural and urban; rather, there is a continuum where one bleeds into the other. However, once a geographically concentrated population has reached approximately 100,000 people, it typically behaves like a city regardless of what its designation might be. The Growth of Cities According to sociologist Gideon Sjoberg (1965), there are three prerequisites for the development of a city: First, good environment with fresh water and a favorable climate; second, advanced technology, which will produce a food surplus to support nonfarmers; and third, strong social organization to ensure social stability and a stable economy. Most scholars agree that the first cities were developed somewhere in ancient Mesopotamia, though there are disagreements about exactly where. Most early cities were small by today's standards, and the largest was most likely Rome, with about 650,000 inhabitants (Chandler and Fox 1974). The factors limiting the size of ancient cities included lack of adequate sewage control, limited food supply, and immigration restrictions. For example, serfs were tied to the land, and transportation was limited and inefficient. Today, the primary influence on cities' growth is economic forces. Since the recent economic recession reduced housing prices, researchers have been waiting to see what happens to urban migration patterns in response.Urbanization in the United States proceeded rapidly during the Industrial Era. As more and more opportunities for work appeared in factories, workers left farms (and the rural communities that housed them) to move to the cities. From mill towns in Massachusetts to tenements in New York, the industrial era saw an influx of poor workers into U.S. cities. At various times throughout the country's history, certain demographic groups, from post-Civil War southern Blacks to more recent immigrants, have made their way to urban centers to seek a better life in the city. MAAs cities grew more crowded, and often more impoverished and costly, more and more people began to migrate back out of them. But instead of returning to rural small towns (like they'd resided in before moving to the city), these people needed close access to the cities for their jobs. In the 1850s, as the urban population greatly expanded and transportation options improved, suburbs developed. Suburbs are the communities surrounding cities, typically close enough for a daily commute in, but far enough away to allow for more space than city living affords. The bucolic suburban landscape of the early twentieth century has largely disappeared due to sprawl. Suburban sprawl contributes to traffic congestion, which in turn contributes to commuting time. And commuting times and distances have continued to increase as new suburbs developed farther and farther from city centers. Simultaneously, this dynamic contributed to an exponential increase in natural resource use, like petroleum, which sequentially increased pollution in the form of carbon emissions. As the suburbs became more crowded and lost their charm, those who could afford it turned to the exurbs, communities that exist outside the ring of suburbs and are typically populated by even wealthier families who want more space and have the resources to lengthen their commute. Together, the suburbs, exurbs, and metropolitan areas all combine to form a metropolis. New York was the first U.S. megalopolis, a huge urban corridor encompassing multiple cities and their surrounding suburbs. These metropolises use vast quantities of natural resources and are a growing part of the U.S. landscape.

According to Malthusian theory, three factors would control human population that exceeded the earth's ability to sustain the growing population of humans. These are

War, famine, and disease

What three factors did Malthus believe would limit human population?

War, famine, and disease

The two primary means of waste disposal in the United States are

landfill and incineration

The positive checks of Malthusian theory are countered by "preventive checks," which also control the population but accomplish this by reducing fertility rates through

birth control and celibacy

Together, the suburbs, exurbs, and metropolitan areas often all combine to form ________ as the city continues to sprawl.

concentric zones

Garbage creation and control are major issues for most ________, and it is quickly becoming one of the most critical environmental issues faced in the United States.

core and industrializing nations

The statistics on ________ are shocking. Research shows that it pervades all aspects of African Americans' lives: environmentally unsound housing, schools with asbestos problems, facilities and playgrounds with lead paint.

environmental racism

________ may be defined as the way in which minority groups are burdened with a disproportionate number of hazards, including toxic waste facilities, garbage dumps, and other sources of environmental pollution.

environmental racism

________ refers to the way in which minority group neighborhoods populated primarily by people of color and members of low socioeconomic groups, are burdened with a disproportionate number of hazards, including toxic waste facilities, garbage dumps, and other sources of environmental pollution and foul odors that lower the quality of life.

environmental racism

________ is an area that is gathering more attention as extreme weather patterns and policy battles over climate change dominate the news. A key factor of this discipline is the concept of carrying capacity, which describes the maximum amount of life that can be sustained within a given area. This concept can be applied to a locale or to the earth as a whole.

environmental sociologists

As the suburbs became more crowded and lost their charm, those who could afford it turned to the ________, which are communities that exist outside the ring of suburbs

exurbs

Sociologists measure the ________ by using the crude birthrate (the number of live births per 1,000 people per year).

fertility rate

The ________ of a society is a measure noting the number of children born.

fertility rate

asylum-seekers:those whose claim to refugee status have not been validated exurbs:communities that arise farther out than the suburbs and are typically populated by residents of high socioeconomic status gentrification:the entry of upper- and middle-class residents to city areas or communities that have been historically less affluent internally displaced person:someone who fled his or her home while remaining inside the country's borders megalopolis:a large urban corridor that encompasses several cities and their surrounding suburbs and exurbs metropolis:the area that includes a city and its suburbs and exurbs refugee:an individual who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster suburbs:the communities surrounding cities, typically close enough for a daily commute sustainable development:development that occurs without depleting or damaging the natural environment urban sociology:the subfield of sociology that focuses on the study of urbanization urbanization:the study of the social, political, and economic relationships of cities white flight:the migration of economically secure white people from racially mixed urban areas toward the suburbs

glossary

cancer cluster:a geographic area with high levels of cancer within its population climate change: long-term shifts in temperature and climate due to human activity environmental racism:the burdening of economically and socially disadvantaged communities with a disproportionate share of environmental hazards environmental sociology:the sociological subfield that addresses the relationship between humans and the environment e-waste:the disposal of broken, obsolete, and worn-out electronics NIMBY:"Not In My Back Yard," the tendency of people to protest poor environmental practices when those practices will affect them directly pollution:the introduction of contaminants into an environment at levels that are damaging

glossary

carrying capacity:the amount of people that can live in a given area considering the amount of available resources cornucopian theory:a theory that asserts human ingenuity will rise to the challenge of providing adequate resources for a growing population demographic transition theory:a theory that describes four stages of population growth, following patterns that connect birth and death rates with stages of industrial development Malthusian theory:a theory asserting that population is controlled through positive checks (war, famine, disease) and preventive checks (measures to reduce fertility) zero population growtha theoretical goal in which the number of people entering a population through birth or immigration is equal to the number of people leaving it via death or emigration

glossary

concentric zone model:a model of human ecology that views cities as a series of circular rings or zones human ecology:a functional perspective that looks at the relationship between people and their built and natural environment

glossary

demography:the study of population fertility rate:a measure noting the actual number of children born mortality rate:a measure of the number of people in a population who die population composition:a snapshot of the demographic profile of a population based on fertility, mortality, and migration rates population pyramid:a graphic representation that depicts population distribution according to age and sex sex ratio:the ratio of men to women in a given population

glossary

environmental racism:the burdening of economically and socially disadvantaged communities with a disproportionate share of environmental hazards NIMBY:"Not In My Back Yard," the tendency of people to protest poor environmental practices when those practices will affect them directly

glossary

________ are interested in the creation and reproduction of inequality and study how peripheral nations' lack of family planning affects their overall population in comparison to core nations that tend to have lower fertility rates.

social conflict theorists

Environmental racism is one of the most ________ forms of racism.

subtle

As transportation options improved and cities grew and became more crowded, they often became more impoverished and costly, so more and more people began to migrate back out of them to places different than the small towns they came from initially, to places called

suburbs

________ are interested in the day-to-day interaction of groups and individuals and they research topics like how family-planning information is presented to and understood by different population groups

symbolic interactionist theorists

________ study how people experience and understand urban life, and how people use language to convince others of the presence (or absence) of global climate change.

symbolic interactionist theorists

________ is the study of the social, political, and economic relationships in cities.

urban sociology

The suburbs have had their share of socio-economic problems. In the United States, ________ refers to the migration of economically secure white people from racially mixed urban areas and toward the suburbs.

white flight

________ occurred throughout the twentieth century, due to diverse causes Current trends include middle-class African-American families following white flight patterns out of cities, while affluent whites return to cities that have historically had a black majority.

white flight