Chapter
3
Human Population
By Susan Stempleski
Human Population has been selected as the theme of the third chapter of this volume on Environmental Education because it is timely, provocative, and of universal importance. "Of all the issues we face as the new millennium nears, none is more important than population growth. The numbers speak for themselves" (Swerdlow, 1998, p. 4). In October 1999 the world's population reached 6 billion, and that number is growing by almost 90 million people a year.
The introductory lesson described here is designed as a starting point for teachers interested in introducing the topic of human population to their students. By reading about and discussing the topic of human population, students increase their awareness of population issues. They also learn new vocabulary and concepts associated with the topic, and they practice language skills in a meaningful way.
The lesson opens with a short "World Population Quiz." Next, students read and discuss an article describing some major issues related to population and the environment. The lesson continues with a whole-class discussion in which students share their personal views on population issues. Finally, students write a brief summary of what they have learned in the lesson. Some teachers will want to use the proposed activities as a single 50-minute lesson. Others may choose to combine some or all the activities with other materials to create a larger teaching unit.
On October 12, 1999, the United Nations declared that Earth's population had reached 6 billion. Of these 6 billion people, more than one-third live in either one or the other of two countries: India with its population of 1 billion, or China with its population of 1.2 billion.
World population first reached one billion in the year 1804. It took 123 years to reach go from one to two billion, but it took only 12 years to go from five to six billion. Since 1950 the population growth rates of the less developed countries have risen very rapidly, and they are now much higher than those of the more developed countries. As a result, most population growth in the past 50 years has been in the poorer areas of the world. Today 98 percent of population growth occurs in the less developed countries, where the benefits of health care, education, family planning, and economic opportunities are least available.
At first glance the effects of population growth on the environment seem obvious. More people use more resources, damage more of the earth, and create more pollution. As the population of a country increases, so does its consumption. Because of this, we might expect the poorer nations, which have the highest populations and the fastest rates of population growth, to cause the most damage to the environment. The truth is more complicated than that.
The greatest danger to the environment comes not just from poor people in developing countries who damage their resources in order to find food and housing. An equally big danger comes from the richest people, who use the most resources and create the most pollution. In addition, there are all the other people in between who increase their consumption as they try to improve their standard of living.
Reducing population growth rates does not solve all population problems. At the beginning of the 20th century, most of the world's people lived in the countryside. Today nearly half of them live in cities, and the fastest growing cities are in the less developed countries. As more people move to the cities, they use more resources and create more pollution. What other environmental problems could occur as more and more people crowd into cities?
