Dulce Rhea M.

Alas BALCS-3 EGE311

Module 2: Lesson 1
Human Population Change the Environment

ACTIVITY
Answer the following questions:

1. What is population ecology?

Population ecology is a branch of biology that deals with the number of
individuals of a particular species found in an area and why those numbers
increase or decrease over time. Furthermore, population ecology focuses its
study on the environmental influences on population growth, regulation, and
dynamics, density and distribution, age structure or demography.

2. How do each of the following affect population size: birth rate, death rate,
immigration, and emigration?
When birth rate increases, the human population would also increase.
Increase on death rate, on the other hand, signifies a decline in the population.
Due to the imbalance between the two in which the fertility rate is rapidly
increasing and becomes significantly greater than the mortality rate,
overpopulation happens.
Immigration, where people moves and enter to another region, means an
increase in the population of that certain area. Meanwhile, emigration means a
decrease in the population of the area where people moves from.

3. How do biotic potential and/or carrying capacity produce the J-shaped and
S-shaped population growth curves?
The J-shaped of growth curve for the population growth in a species is
formed when the density of an organism increases at an exponential rate due to
favourable environmental factors like changes in seasonal patterns, cessation of
the breeding season of the organism concerned, etc.
Meanwhile, the S-shaped population growth curve is produced when the
species is adapting to an environment like an artificial growth medium and then
subsequently the nutrients are used up which decreases the growth of the
population.
4. How would you describe human population growth for the past 200 years?
The human population growth for the past 200 years absolutely exploded
and is continually increasing today in a very rapid rate. It took 200 years to reach
one billion people in the earth, but since then the number of the people grew
more than 7-fold to around 8 billion today. It only took another 200 years to reach
seven billion people in the planet. This is mainly due to the Industrial Revolution
in which new machineries, increased food supply, improved sanitation,
vaccinations, and antibiotics have greatly improved the human life. And with
today’s globalization and modernization, the increase rate of the human
population is expected to be much higher than what it is before.

5. Who was Thomas Malthus, and what were his views on human population
growth?
Thomas Robert Malthus is a British economist and demographer who is
best known for his theory and views in population called the Malthusianism. He
recognizes population as a concept that can’t increase indefinitely. He also
believes that population growth will always tend to outrun the food supply and
that betterment of humankind is impossible without stern limits on reproduction.
With this thinking, he had furthermore warned that the inevitable consequences
of population growth would be famine, disease, and war.

6. When determining Earth’s carrying capacity for humans, why is it not enough
to just consider human numbers?
Human numbers are important in determining the carrying capacity of the
Earth; however, there are also several factors that should be considered to
ensure the sustainability of the natural environment. These limiting factors
include the adequacy of food, shelter, water, space, and other natural resource.
Without the sufficiency of the mentioned, the species could not survive and the
Earth would be depleted and degraded.
APPLICATION

What is happening in this picture?

In the picture, we can see the tons of garbage thrown in the dumpsite. These are
the waste obtained from people every day. And from the junks of many households
came these specific people who are called waste pickers. Even if they can only gain
a small profit, collecting reusable things from junks became their main source of
income. And without them being aware of it, these people who dive onto piles of
garbage to recycle have collectively helped in protecting the natural environment.

 What valuable environmental service does such scavenging provide?

Scavenging which is an act of searching and collecting any usable items
from discarded waste. It provides a great environmental service through cleaning
wastes that could actually harm the nature. Scavenging protects the environment by
recycling junks such as plastics, metal scrapes, bottles, rubber, and etc. Waste
pickers may be marginalized in the society but they mainly contribute in reducing
pollution and greenhouse gases emissions while helping on the conservation of
natural resources and energy through reusing materials.

 Do you think this is the result of urbanization and environmental conversion?

Yes, I think this is the consequence of urbanization and environmental
conversion. Because of industrialization, forests and woodlands are converted to
cities while trees are cut to build houses and buildings. Industrialization produced
tons of wastes from factories and companies. Urbanization, on the other hand, also
contributes to the large scale of garbage due to the large population throwing heaps
of junks every day. While the investors and capitalists gain money through
degrading the natural environment, the marginalized waste pickers who earn very
small amount are the ones who try to save the nature from their destruction.