Reflection paper: 1

Environmental Determinism

Environment determinism's foundation can be attributed to the humor theory produced

by Hippocrates. The theory explains that climate is the sole reason for the physical form

and personality of an individual which is also extended to determination of types of

government and religion. Hot climates produced lazy, short-lived and agile people

whereas cold climates produced people lacking in intelligence and skills along with

preference of individual liberty. Temperate climates were stated best for creating people

best for ruling along with being prone to intellectual thinking. Humor theory was

popular until the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries where the popularity

declined. It became popular again during the period where anthropologists and

geographers sought simple causes for the geographic distribution of culture traits and
because of the antienvironmental stance of Marxist writers. Material culture, non-

material culture and technology were assumed to be influenced by the environment.

Despite the environment being reduced to a limiting role in the present, applications of

environmental determinism can be found in are seen in models of genetic change in

human populations and physiological adaptations to altitude and temperature where

the environment is a large factor of influence.

This is frankly, an extreme case of over generalization in attempts to deduce

characteristics of a group of people according to geographical region. The stereotypes set

by Hippocrates is ridiculous, even for ancient times considering the fact that there was a

large possibility of people of the same temperament in other regions (hot and cold)

existing in the same region where there the climate is temperate. It is although very

interesting to note that a correlation between the environment and culture has been

recognized so early on. While environment has been established to have an effect on our

physical forms, it is still a very debatable topic without conclusive evidences on whether

it influences culture or personality of a group of people.

Demographic Transition

In stage one, lower availability of food and absence of technologies (industrialization) to

increase food production cause the population growth to crawl along and death and

birth rates to be high and equal. When stage two starts, birth rate remains high while

death rate drops due to food availability because of improved food production and

sanitation. Due to this, population increases steeply. Combination of usage of

contraceptives, education of women and other factors at this stage contribute to the

drop of the birth rates. Death rates also drop so population growth begins to slow down.

In the final stage, birth rates are equally low as death rates and even drop below death

rates to replacement levels for some countries.

Aside from economic development, demographic transition also has an influence on age

structure. In the first stage, because of the high death rates, infant mortality rate is high

so most of the population does not advance to the ages of teens and adults. This however

changes in the second stage when as a result of the improved food production and

sanitation, infant mortality decreases and the infants survive to teenage and adult ages

thereby causing an increase in the portion of the population responsible for fertility. For
the third stage, when birth rates drop, there is an increase in the portion of adults. In the

final stage when birth rates drop even lower, especially below death rates, then the

population has achieved levels below replacement levels of fertility producing an aging

population.

The demographic transition theory can be used as an explanation for transitions in some

regions, such as North America, Japan and most of Europe, but it is not applicable to all.

Most countries have a range of factors that would contradict the application of

demographic transition theory.

Megatrends in population and their implication for economy

Kenya: At present, Kenya can be described to be in its second stage of demographic

transition. Declining birth rates, young people dominating the population and

increasing economic development and urbanization are all characteristics of second

stage of the demographic transition. The effect of the population will have on the

economy will be huge. The overwhelming abundance of young people set to enter the
employment market sets two possible future scenarios: an unemployment crisis or

accelerated growth in economy.

Bulgaria: The combination of low birth rates and outbound migration of large degrees

are resulting in the rapid decrease of Bulgaria's population. Young Bulgarians migrate to

other countries in search for better paying jobs and incomes reducing the chances of

Bulgaria's economy developing into a thriving economy. At the moment, minimum wage

is the lowest in Bulgaria with unemployment rate being higher than the GDP.

It was very interesting to learn how population sizes shrink and the following after

effects on the economy. Especially in the case of Bulgaria, where the population growth

cannot be predicted by demographic transition theory because of outbound migration.

In general, the demographic transition theory seems to be applicable to population

growth for all countries, but as remarked earlier, a range of factors play a large role in

the contradiction of the demographic transition theory.