CENTRAL BICOL STATE UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE- Sipocot

School Year 2018-2019

College of Education
1st Semester

SYNOPSIS
(GEOGRAPHY 2 FINAL)

Submitted by:
Merenciano Elaine Mae L.
BEED 4b

Submitted by:
Mr. Roberto V. Ablao
instructor
CENTRAL BICOL STATE UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE- Sipocot
School Year 2018-2019
College of Education
1st Semester

SYNOPSIS
(GEOGRAPHY 2 FINAL)

Submitted by:
Pesino Gladys L.
BEED 4b

Submitted by:
Mr. Roberto V. Ablao
instructor
 Chapter 11

Soil Resources

In agricultural country like the Philippines soil study constitutes the basis for sounds land use
planning and in scientific farm management. They are also important in farm appraisals, sol
conservation and operations, and in determining the crops best suited to a given region. In
planning for irrigation system drainage and cultivation knowledge of soil characteristics and its
formation is essential. Soil profile: the greater part of the earth’s soil is derived from weathered
rock known as the parent material. Geologist tell us that there are three kinds of rocks, namely
igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic. The igneous rocks are those that are derived from the
solidification of molten rocks.Conservation measures are created to prevent rapid soil erosion and
to maintain soil fertility. The examples are forest conservation, crop cover, buffer strip planting,
contour strip cropping, contour rice paddies, crop rotation and green manuring,terracing,
fertilization and liming, gully control, and organiz matter application.
REFLECTION:
This relationship constitutes the five-factors, “clorpt,” explanatory model of soil formation that
lends itself to the survey, classification, and mapping of soil for agricultural and environmental
purposes and aids in soil valuations and soil conservation-management needs. In geomorphology
and Quaternary research, it has met success in soil chronosequence and age-dating studies. But
inasmuch as soil is the most complex and unparsimonious of all natural science entities, is any
model so conceptually endowed that it allows a deep understanding of the full range and nuances
of soil-forming processes? Can a conventional model provide new visions and different levels of
knowledge beyond conventional levels? We present a multifaceted and biodynamic approach that
views soil in different ways. One is that soil is the outer integument, or “skin” of all lithic-composed
celestial bodies, planets, their satellites, and such. But Earth differs from others because water
covers nearly three-fourths of its surface and life covers nearly all of its surface and produces a
biodynamically mediated “epidermis”—a biomantle that other planets lack. The biomantle
constitutes a subaerial-subaqueous continuum across the globe. Life imparts myriad
biomechanical and biochemical processes—biodynamic processes—to the soil-biomantle
continuum, and these coact with physical processes in producing soil landscapes. This
multifaceted approach is embedded as a component of the dynamic denudation framework of
landscape evolution, which carries useful and different explanatory and predictive powers for
studying the global soil-biomantle that may be invisible, unacknowledged, or unstressed in other
frameworks, including one where “organisms” essentially means plants. To appreciate how our
approach differs from conventional views of soil formation, and to provide a historic context, we
reflect on the nineteenth- and twentieth-century turning points in Earth sciences, mainly in
geography, geology, and soils, which led to the five-factors (clorpt) model as the sine qua non
way to explain soils.

RELATED LITERATURE:
Soil is one of the three major natural resources, alongside air and water. It is one of the
marvellous products of nature and without which there would be no life. Soil is made up of three
main components – minerals that come from rocks below or nearby, organic matter which is the
remains of plants and animals that use the soil, and the living organisms that reside in the soil.The
proportion of each of these is important in determining the type of soil that is present.
 Chapter 12
Forest Resources
There is no province in the island that does no have forest of any kind. Even the most level
province, Pampanga has some forest lands. More than 50 percent of the total land area of the
archipelago is presently covered with forest so much as that we rank fifth in the forest density of
the world. Based from the report of the Bureau of Forest Development of the area of forest and
non-forest lands of the 30,000,000 hectares of the country land area is divided as shown. The
bulk of the Philippines forest belongs to the type known as tropical rain forests. They contain
about 3,000 species of trees and are rich in timber and forest classified into six broad types:
Dipterocarp types this is the Philippines variety of the rain forest and a grown well where the
rainfall is consistent and high. The public forests of the Philippines which form part of the public
domain are administered by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources through the
Forest Management Bureau. This bureau is responsible for the commercial, efficient and effective
classification, protection, reforestation and conservation of public forest and forest reserves.
Lumbering constitutes one of the basic industries of the country. in the broader sense, lumber
industry include logging, the operation of saw mills, plywood mills veneer mills, lumber yards and
other allied business including the utilization of minor forest products. Our forest are our greatest
renewable natural resources if we manage them properly they can be self-perpetuating. Aside
public benefits wholly divorce from the source of raw materials.
REFLECTION:
These are some visible or memorable services that forest can offer to us, but there are much
more and different services that now might be not visible for you. Keeping water source clean,
helping to climate balance, giving fruits, oils, fibers, and much more for us and for a lot of different
animals that are part of this world.
All the technologies that were and still are being developed to better exploit these resources, we
still need to improve the strategy to maintain the offer of all these resources, and at the same
time allow and give time for forests to recover and maintain other ecological and social function
locally and globally. In my opinion this is a Sustainable Forest Management strategy. We are not
going to stop using wood and other forest services (and I imagine that we also should not stop
enjoying our moments under a tree!), and we dont have space enough to substitute all these
sources from native (original) forest cover by those from forest plantations. A lot has been done
about SFM and we have positive experiences in implementing it, but still we need to learn a lot
from the mistakes and to understand that the principle of SFM strategies is that they need to be
flexible to different forest realities.
RELATED LITERATURE:
Although forest is a term of common parlance, there is no universally recognised precise
definition, with more than 800 definitions of forest used around the world. Although a forest is
usually defined by the presence of trees, under many definitions an area completely lacking trees
may still be considered a forest if it grew trees in the past, will grow trees in the future, or was
legally designated as a forest regardless of vegetation type. There are three broad categories of
forest definitions in use: administrative, land use, and land cover. Administrative definitions are
based primarily upon the legal designations of land, and commonly bear little relationship to the
vegetation growing on the land: land that is legally designated as a forest is defined as a forest
even if no trees are growing on it. Land use definitions are based upon the primary purpose that
the land serves. Such definitions typically define a forest as an area growing trees above some
threshold. These thresholds are typically the number of trees per area (density), the area of
ground under the tree canopy (canopy cover) or the section of land that is occupied by the cross-
section of tree trunks (basal area).
Chapter 13
Fishery resources
Fishery products include such items as fish, clams, oysters, lobsters, eels, shrimps, turtles, seals
and whales. Pearls sponges coral shells, and seaweeds are also included among the products
derived from the sea. Extractive industries are those which derive their raw materials directly
form nature. Among the most important of these industries are mining, lumbering, grazing, fishing
and hunting. If no attempt is made to replace the supply of fish, as in deep fishing then this
sense, fishing is an extractive industry. TThe fishing industry is beset with many problems. Inspite
of the fact that the Philippines has favorable conditions for the development of the fishery
resources, still up to now, we are importing fish products. If proper measures are taken, the
country will not be self-sufficient in fish but will become a fish-exporting nation. Some problems
that Philippine Fisheries Commission are being faced are: Lack of technical know-how and
technical power. Inadequate transportation, distribution and refrigeration in many centers of
production, imbalance in exploitation effort, alarming increase of water pollution cases, difficult
execution of management due to dual control of freshwater areas, inadequacy of fish seedlings
and financing. Fishery together with agriculture, forestry and mining forms the basic industry
which supports our industry civilization. Among these primary industries, commercial fishing in
the Philippines is still in its stage of infancy, particularly deep-sea fishing. Inspite of the rich fishery
resources that abound within our vast territorial water, still we are far from being self-sufficient
in our fish requirements. Finally to encourage private enterprise to go into deep sea fishing, the
government should extend liberal credit terms and sympathetic understanding on the problems
of the industry. With the expansion and development of the fishery resources, mensely to the
economic development of the country.
Reflection:
Fish is an important commodity globally. The world’s fisheries produce approximately$120 billion
per year. Fishery products are also heavily traded on the international market with an estimated
trade value of $58 billion annually. This was also the time when fisheries policies were in place
facilitating and accelerating the development of large-scale extractive industry (ADB 2006). The
typical small-scale fisher, with a 3-6 meter boat, with or without a small outboard engine, became
marginalized and faced increasing competition for smaller and smaller amounts of fish. During
the 1980s and 1990s, new ideas were developed that looked at controlling fisheries and managing
the fishery resource for optimal or maximum sustainable levels. Restrictions were put in place in
the form of licenses and permits. Unfortunately, much was lacking in implementation.
Development efforts focused, largely, on the capacity of governments to implement their policies.

RELATED LITERATURE:
Managing fisheries is about managing people and businesses, and not about managing fish. Fish
populations are managed by regulating the actions of people. If fisheries management is to be
successful, then associated human factors, such as the reactions of fishermen, are of key
importance, and need to be understood. Management regulations must also consider the
implications for stakeholders. Commercial fishermen rely on catches to provide for their families
just as farmers rely on crops. Commercial fishing can be a traditional trade passed down from
generation to generation. Most commercial fishing is based in towns built around the fishing
industry; regulation changes can impact an entire town’s economy. Cuts in harvest quotas can
have adverse effects on the ability of fishermen to compete with the tourism industry. Effective
management of fisheries includes involving all stakeholders in the fishery. To do this successfully,
stakeholders need to feel empowered enough to make meaningful contributions to the
management process.
Chapter 14
Mineral resources
The mineral resources which are found within the accessible portion of the earth’s crust are very
different from the other natural resources. Their concentration in economic values is the result of
long period of geological processes and once used, man is incapable of replenishing them. Unlike
in the case of plants and animals resources, they can be so managed that production can be
maintained. Even soil that has been seriously depleted can be restored through proper
management. But minerals, once mined processed and put to beneficial use, can no longer be
replaced or accumulated in nature within the span of human life. The metal are comparatively
heavy, with brilliant luster and are good conductors of heat and electricity. The principal metallic
minerals of the country are gold, silver, copper, iron, chromite, manganese nickel, mercury, led
and zinc. The minerals of molybdenum cadmium, platinum and palladium are also encountered
as by products in the principal metals. Gold and Silver the biggest quality of precious metallic
minerals produced in the Philippines. The copper mineralization of the Philippines appears to
follow two distinct zones. Iron is the fourth most common metallic elements of the earth crust. It
is present through in a small amount in most of the common metallic elements of the earth’s
crust. It is present although in small amount in most of the ricks, the presence of iron is made
evident by the dark, brown, red or yellow coloration in imparts to the rocks and minerals metallic
iron in its natural state is also found in meteorites which come from the outer space. Chromite
occurs in many place in the Philippines but principal deposits are found in Zambales, Camarines
Sur, Surigai and Misamis Oriental.
Reflection:
What I understand better now about rocks and minerals than I did before is that Rocks and
Minerals are not necessarily the same thing because, minerals are the building blocks of rocks.
Minerals make up rocks. And all rocks are classified into 3 groups. The easiest thing about this
entry was telling about how rock types are formed because, the song helped me learn it better.
And because we spent a lot of time working on them and we did a lot of labs and fun activities.
The most difficult thing about this entry was being creative about it because I didn't know how
to be creative and come up with cool ideas to show a deep understanding. It is important to have
an understanding of rocks and minerals because, it can tell about our history and about how long
something has been here on Earth. Scientists can actually tell the exact date on a rock now! I
learned a lot about rocks and minerals that I didn't know before.

RELATED LITERATURE:
A mineral is a naturally occurring chemical compound, usually of crystalline form and not
produced by life processes. A mineral has one specific chemical composition, whereas a rock can
be an aggregate of different minerals or mineraloids. The study of minerals is called mineralogy.
As of March 2018, there are more than 5,500 known mineral species; 5,312 of these have been
approved by the International Mineralogical Association (IMA). Minerals are distinguished by
various chemical and physical properties. Differences in chemical composition and crystal
structuredistinguish the various species, which were determined by the mineral's geological
environment when formed. Changes in the temperature, pressure, or bulk composition of a rock
mass cause changes in its minerals.
 Chapter 15
Agricultural Resources
Agriculture is almost as old as when man learned to settle and inhabit the earth. In its
etymological derivation, it means the care and the tilling of the field or soil. In its present and
broader concepts, agriculture covers those productive efforts by which man settles on the land,
seeks to make use of and if possible, accelerates and improves upon the natural genetic life, to
the end that process will yield the vegetables and animals production needed or wanted by man.
This definition stresses the fact that the agricultural man is sedentary in his mode of living and
he works with nature to make the yield more of the fruits he desires. The Philippines is
predominantly an agricultural country. endowed with an arable land of about forty five percent
of its total land area, the inhabitants derived their economic life blood essentially from agriculture.
The Philippine agricultural scene is characterized by great variety of crops although some exhibits
a geographical concentration in certain areas. Rice is the staple food of the Filipinos and it is
grown in all parts of the country. rice is a cultivated form of grass originally found in Indo-China.
It needs a swamp habitat favorable for growth. The topographic and soil requirements of paddy
rice are very exacting. The natural environment conditions in the Philippines are favorable to rice
production. Corn is the second most important food crop produced in the Philippines. Over 20
percent of the country population consume corn as the principal staple food. Compared to rice,
corn is more nutritious and contains more food content and vitamins. Corn can be grown under
a variety of physical conditions. But for the best yield, it requires a hot humid growing season
with bright sunny days during the ripening period. Corn production can be boosted if scientific
methods of farming are employed. The national average is only 11.5 canvas per hectares. The
problem of the corn industry consist mainly in renewing the fertility if worn out corn lands,
selection of high yielding varieties and providing better methods of storage.the coconut palm is
a typical tropical tree. It cannot withstand cold or cool weather. Optimum conditions are obtained
where the average annual temperature is 26.6 degree Celcius and the range of temperature from
the month to month is low. The coconut industry is national enterprise and is a major crop in
about 55 provinces of the Philippines. About 22 percents of the total agriculture crop area is
planted to coconut. It is a leading earner of our foreign exchange and is the source of livelihood
of about one third of our population. The most important products derived from the coconut meat
are copra dessicated coconut, copra cake and meal and coconut oil. Copra is dried meat of the
coconut. Copra cake and meal are products derived from the copra after the oil has been
extracted. These products are used as feed for animals and since the native carabao does not
feed on the copra cake and meal, these products are mostly exported. The Philippines Coconut
Authority was created by the government to solve the problems of the industry but much remains
to be done. Sugarcane is a perennial plant of the grass family. Although some varieties of
sugarcane ripen within a period of eight month, most of them requires a long growing season
from 12 to 24 months. These physical condition are found in Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental,
Pampanga, Batangas, Laguna, Tarlac and Iloilo which are the leading sugar producting provinces
of the Philippines.
 Chapter 16
Agricultural resources
The abaca plant which gives us Manila hemp is a close relatives of the banana plants both
belongings to the genus musa. It is a tree like gerb growing to a height of slightly shorter than
the native banana plants. Abaca grows best in areas where the annual rainfall totals are high and
where there is no pronounced dry season. The spoil must be rich and must be neither to coarse
nor too fine. Abaca is even more delicate than banana and must be protected against strong
winds. In terms of topography, abaca grows well on the plains of large rivers or on the base of
hills and mountain slopes where the terrain permits normal drainage of the surface water. Abaca
is indigenous to the Philippines and in spite of efforts made by other countries it has never been
a truly commercial success in other areas. First is the native or cigar filler variety. And he second
the Virginia or Aromatic types of tobacco. The second phase of agricultural land utilization includes
the raising of livestock and poultry and fishpond farming. The grazing industries are most
widespread on lands with limited rainfall that are beyond the economic margin of field crops. In
humid regions such as the Philippines, the livestock industries are common on areas that are too
rugged or too infertile for farm crops. The Philippines has about 3.5 million hectares of grassland
areas of which about one half has already been covered by pasture permits for extensive cattle
ranching. These pasture lands are found in many parts of the country such as the Lanao,
Bukidnon. Poultry is another aspect of diversified farming. Chicken can be raised as a side industry
of the farmer or an commercial basis. Like any human enterprise, the livestock industry has
several problems these are limited funds, the administration of pasture lands, the development
of our forage and pasture plants , technical problems, feed problems, and marketing. Agriculture
has been and will continue for many more years to come as the basic industry of the Philippines.
The agriculture resources and potentialities if the country are many and varied. The program of
the government to attain a balance of the agricultural resources as the base of the economy that
will support the requirements of the manufacturing industries.
Reflection:
My passion for agriculture started in a classroom discussing a food system I had grown up in: the
industrial food system of the U.S. I was familiar with the pitfalls of this system, from animal
welfare to long term food supply sustainability. Through courses during my previous years of
undergrad, I knew all about climate change, what was causing it, and what the consequences
were. I knew that our current food system was a huge contributor of carbon dioxide and how this
was playing into the current climate crisis we face. We tied all of this to agriculture in my food
studies course, and a lot of the information was familiar. This was the first time I’d really
encountered agriculture, however, outside of the expanse of corn and soybean fields in Southern
Illinois along roads I had driven many a time. It piqued my interest and I wanted to know more.

RELATED LITERATURE:
For decades, agriculture has been associated with the production of essential food crops. At
present, agriculture above and beyond farming includes forestry, dairy, fruit cultivation, poultry,
bee keeping, mushroom, arbitrary, etc. Today, processing, marketing, and distribution of crops
and livestock products etc. are all acknowledged as part of current agriculture.
 Chapter 17
Agricultural tenancy and reforms
Historically Philippines agricultural tenure has been largerly feudal in character an institution
called caciquism or landlordism. Caciquism had already gained a foothold on native even soil
before the arrival of the Spaniards. The early Filipino were mainly tillers of the soil, cultivating
wet villages, called barangays, which roughly corresponding to the barangays of today. The chief
or datu had power of life or dath over three classes of subordinates: the lowest in the social
strata. The nobles were free from tribute but were ready to go to battle for the chief.the problem
of land ownership in the Philippines dates back to the days when man learned to live a sedentary
life. Mindful of his economics security, man struggle to claim as his own the land that he
cultivated, relying mainly on his physical strength to preserve it and on the good faith of his
fellowmen to respect his right. The equitable distribution of the products of the farm to the
satisfaction of both the land lord and tenants has always been a problem in the Philippines. Two
principal types of tenancy relation still exists kasama system or share tenancy and inquilinato
system or leasehold tenancy. The Philippines has some of the most fertile lands in the world, yet
our tenant farmers receive a meager income. This is partly attributable to our antiquated farming
practices, among which is share tenancy which kills incentives and gives rise to agrarian problems.
Land reforms is the more popular term but agrarian reform is more accurate and comprehensive.
Agrarian refers not only to the land but also to the human relations regarding land, including
tenurial, economics, social, political and cultural relationship. Agrarian reforms means remedying
the defects in the distribution and utilization of the land in the hope of increasing its productivity
so as to improve the lot of the farmers. The land reform code was a social and economic
legislation.
Reflection:
Tarlac - When President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo last week began her six-year term, her inaugural
address had one glaring omission: it made no mention o land reform here in Tinang, members
of the rich de #eon clan found a way to keep their land through the voluntary #and Transfer
scheme, a method of land distribution that requires no government money and minimal
intervention from the apartment o Agrarian reform they did that and how this remained
undetected or nearly decade exposes the many laws o a program that was supposed to be
the cornerstone of former President Corazon Aquino’s social justice agenda you ask me are we
tenants, are we farmers, no, we.re not says Michael scalar, a 34-year-old member of de Leon
clan, which owns the Tinang hacienda. Are you asking me how 1 got there, how it happened,
scalar is a sugar miller and shareholder of the 5ational insurance orp!6et his signature, as well
as those of his relative, appears on numerous documents now on file at the Municipal Agrarian
reform in Concepcion, Tarlac! The documents entitled them to individual certificates o #and
ownership Award or, now filed at the Tarlac register of seeds. Are titles to the land supposed to
begin only to the landless farmer-beneficiaries source This is evidence that there is weak
implementation of the said law those who are supposedly beneficiaries, are cheated into losing
the lands that should be legally theirs! The inherent corruption and numerous loopholes inside
the law make it difficult or farmers and poor people to be blessed with a property
 Chapter 18
Industrial development
Industrial development is a process whereby the manufacturing sector contributes an increasing
share to the national income. It also means the increasing employment of greater part of the
labor force of a country in manufacturing industries. Where more than 30% of the labor force I
employed in manufacturing, the country is classified as highly industrialized; between 20% and
30% moderately industrialized; between 10% and 20%, slightly industrialized. And below 10%
undeveloped. Manufacturing has been defined as the mechanical or chemical transformation of
the raw materials derived from the farms, forest seas, and mines into finished products to meet
human needs. The world manufacturing has become synonymous with the world industry itself.
Today, industry means the gathering, processing combining and fashioning of all kinds natures
raw materials. Economic geograp0hic tells us that there are seven basic factors that will
encourage the development of manufacturing industries, namely capital raw materials power
market labor transportation and government policy. The highly industrialized countries of the
world, notably the Unites States, western Europe and Japan. Capital is the first requirements of
a modern manufacturing enterprise. Capital as used in business means the amount of money that
is available to carry on the function of the enterprise.

Reflection:
East Asia's industrial dominance in the world market has been persistent for several decades,
even though the positions of individual countries in each industry have been evolving. Japan led
the industrial prowess of this region in the world market up until the 1990s. South Korea then
followed Japan's path and took over the leading position in a few industries during the 2000s.
Finally, China has taken the leading position in many of these industries except for a few areas
such as automobiles and semiconductors (by shares in the world market even though China's
production level has already reached the top). This dominant position of East Asia has caused
envy from other parts of the world, which has resulted in the three countries often receiving
commercial pressures, most notably from advanced economies such as the United States and the
European Union. Many developing countries also have expressed their concerns occasionally
about East Asia's dominance in industries while trying to benchmark the history of industrial
development of the three countries. However, industries in East Asia seem to be faced with strong
new headwinds these days. The harshest one came from the sluggish world economic recovery.
The three countries have been seeing their industrial exports plummeting since 2015. Declining
exports are largely due to the sluggish world economy, especially declining demand from the
major advanced countries. In addition, many new emerging markets which started to face
damage from the brutal price plunge of oil and other primary products also had to reduce their
own demand for industrial products of East Asia. As most of the above-listed industries in this
region heavily depend upon external demand from the world market for growing scale and
efficiency, worldwide collapsing demand is putting the sustainable development of these
industries in this region into a serious quandary. Of course, inherent overcapacity in many
industries, which is partly due to past competitive expansionary strategies among the three
countries, has played another aggravating role in this evolution.
 Chapter 19
Population
Population is one of the most important elements of the state. The geographer views population
from the spatial or distributional aspects as expressed in terms of closely related items such as
numbers, density, distribution aspects as expressed in terms of closely related items such as
number, density, distribution and movement of population stem problems of grave social,
economics and political consequences in which the geographer has a primary interest. Arithmetic
density is the ratio between the total population and the land area while agricultural density is
the average pressure of the rural population on the arable land. Nutritional or physiological density
conveys the average pressure of the population on the land cultivated. The better way of
determining weather a pieces of land is thickly populated or not is to determine the economic
density. Productive capacity includes not only agriculture but other industries that the land can
sustain. If the land area of the Philippines were to be divided equally among the 1990 population
of 60.7 million there will be an arithmetic desntiy of 202 persons per square kilometer, the
province with the lowers overall density is ifugao with 30.1 followed by Palawan with 35.4, Abra
46.5, Nueva Vizcaya 46.7, Agusan del Sur 47 and Occidental Mindoro 48.1. internal migration is
the movement of population within the country. There are three directions of internal movement
towards cities, southwards migration, and seasonal migration. The growth of urban centers such
as Manila, Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod, Zamboanga and others during the recent years could hardly be
attributed to natural increases alone. Their population had grown from an increasing flow of
people from their hinterlands. Manila showed an increase of 20% from 1970 to 1990 while Quezon
City showed increase of 121% during the same period. Caloocan showed an increase of 178%
while Pasay registered an increase of 78% from 1970to 1990.
Reflection:
Some months ago, I wrote a long post on population growth and the problems of over-population. I had
intended to revisit this when the Earth’s population passed the 7 billion mark, but my colleague Brett, who
also has written on population in the past, beat me to it. (No hard feelings!) I was too busy to comment
on his post, but I have been thinking about the question and some of the issues he raised. And this seems
an appropriate moment, since as I am writing this piece, world population is going to (at least nominally)
hit 7 billion, 5 million people. More precisely: the same demographic model which showed world
population reaching 7 billion on October 31 shows that the population has grown by another 5 million
people in the 24 days since then. It is worth contemplating that number. Here is one way to put it into
perspective: if we gathered all 5 million newborns into a single location, they would create the 58th largest
municipality in the world, and would be the second largest city in the United States, behind only to New
York. (Note that these numbers depend on the precise definition of “city” and “municipality” used: they
suffice for a qualitative comparison.) Further, this does not stop: every 24 days, the equivalent of another
city of 5 million people will be added to the world’s population. Currently, world population is growing at
at a rate of 1.1% annually, down from a peak of 2% annually in the 1960’s. It is predicted that this rate
will continue to decline steadily to about 0.5% in 2050. These changes are significant. If the population
continued to grow by 1.1% annually until 2050, the population would be approximately 10.8 billion people,
as opposed to the predicted value of just over 9 billion. Were population to have continued to grow at 2%
per year from 1960 onwards, it would reach over 17 billion by 2050. How big a population is too much for
the earth to support? Answers are quite varied, and I must agree with Brett when he says that it
depends. I disagree with him in that I have a much more pessimistic than he is. The answer depends not
only on the size of the population but on the rate of consumption and here we come to the crux of the
matter. A typical member of the middle class (however defined) in the U.S. or Canada consumes
considerably more than someone living in Western Europe or Japan, who in turn consume more than the
average member of the middle class in the emerging industrial nations of Brazil, China and India. One
way of quantifying both population and consumption is in terms of the global footprint or ecological
footprint of the inhabitants of a country.