Overview
What is the world population ? At this very minute?? Go here:
- http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/Links to an external site.
- scroll down to see how population has changed over time.
- Explore global population growth here: https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growthLinks to an external site.
- Watch this TED talk by Hans Rosling:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTznEIZRkLLinks to an external site.
After looking at these websites and completing Chapter 4.1, reflect on the following questions (or other thoughts/issues related to human population growth):
- When did we reach 8 billion? How many people did we add to the planet in 2022?
- When did we reach 2 billion?
- When did we reach 4 billion?
- When did we reach 6 billion?
- Discuss how the amount of time it takes to add 1 billion people to the planet has changed.
- Are there too many people on the planet? In other words, have we overshot the Earth’s carrying capacity?
- Can we feed 8 billion + people? Do we have enough resources for 8 billion people?
- Is US population stable, growing, or shrinking? What factors explain our current status?
- How do patterns of population growth vary globally?
- What influences women to have fewer children?
- What is the link between ecological footprint and population growth?
- Which countries have the largest population sizes? What are their ecological footprint?
- Hans Rosling (in TedTalk linked above) stated, "Child Survival is the New Green". What did he mean by this? Do you agree or disagree?
- Rosling describes himself as a “serious possibilist” and predicts that we can stop population growth. He qualified this with a very big IF….what was that IF??
Now....choose one or more of these questions to answer, discuss, or reflect on.
For full credit, be sure to post AND comment on one of you peer's posts.