1. “Approximately when was the
bottle half full? “ I would estimate
that the bottle was half full at 11:30 since it took 1 hour to fill the
bottle.
2. Then answer the
next question.
3. Did anything
surprise you about these two parts? I
was surprised to see that I got the answer wrong and that it was half full and
full at the same time frame.
4. “Any time living
things are allowed to reproduce freely, their numbers increase exponentially
not linearly. And when people talk about "steady growth," they mean
exponential growth then, too.” Why do you think people might have trouble
understanding exponential growth? I think people will have trouble
understanding this because it is not black and white. We are used to things growing at an even pace
and steadily. Not quickly multiplying.
5. Whenever you hear
that something is growing by some percentage, or that something is growing
steadily, what rule should you remember in order to understand the rate of
growth? Explain this rule. You need to
remember it is not always linearly but, exponential growth too. As something grows larger it starts to
multiply even faster than it did before.
Keeping ahead of it is nearly impossible. Remembering the rule of 70
says that eventually it will double.
6. “When our
consumption of a resource (energy, for instance) grows steadily, the doubling
time takes on an even scarier meaning.” What is that scarier meaning? The scary
thing is that if our society continues to grow our resources will be used
up. There is no way for our supply to
keep up with the demand. When looking at the charts we find that we have used
up more energy than all of history before us.
7. “…if we keep
increasing our energy consumption like this, we'll use more energy in the next
25 years than we've produced _in all of history up to now_______________________.”
8. “There are those
who say we don't need to worry about running out of oil, because there's still
lots of oil left in the ground. Experts believe that over the past 150 years we
have used up about half the total oil on Earth. In other words, our oil supply
"bottle" is still half full.” But if we keep doubling our population,
what will happen? We will run out of oil
after 1 more doubling.
The People Paradox Video
These
questions are in order as the video runs.
About
India
1. Compare the
education of the residents of north and south India. How does this correlate
with the number of children women bear? Women in the northern part of the country are
uneducated and have an average of 5/6 children each. In the southern part of the country women are
educated and birth rates are down with each women averaging 3 kids. This could cause the population to double
instead of stabilize.
2. Who are the “gatekeepers
to health services” in India? The US is
offering support with the help of Dr. Ravi Anand with healthcare and family
planning. However the husbands and
their mothers make all the decisions regarding pregnancy and family planning
therefor, they are referred to as the “gate keepers”.
3. Why might sons be
preferred in India? Sons are preferred in India because they stay with the
family and care for their elderly parents. With no sons or only one son the
parents are at risk of being left “high and dry”.
4. India demographic
pyramid? Shows that the base is its
youth and under 25 reaching reproductive age. What implications does this have? If they only have 2 kids per couple population
growth will halt.
5. Why are daughters
often considered a burden in India?
Daughters are considedered a burden in India because the family is
required to provide a dowry upon marriage.
6. How did Abidi Shah
change the lives of the young women in the village? Abidi Shah is a social worker that convinced
a town to let her teach vocational education and health to girls. She helps the women learn skills to get
employment. She also helps them with
legal birth control such as the pill.
She teaches them that they have a say in their future as well.
7. What are the
obstacles for women and employment in India?
India is already struggling with unemployment so it is hard for jobs to
come by. The population is growing too
fast for employment to keep up.
8. What is the
knife-edge that India sits upon? The
knife edge that India sits upon has to do with population. If they can get it under control they will be
okay but, just a slight change (couple having 2 kids vs 2.5 kids per couple) it
will throw it all off causing drastic consequences.
About
Japan
1. What is the “revolutionary
change” that is happening in Japan?
Japans population is decreasing.
Birth rates have declined greatly and quickly.
2. If fertility stays
at 1.3, Japan’s population will shrink in ______half___.
3. What are two
reasons Japanese women want to work? They
want their independence and if married many times a dual income family is
necessary, especially if children are involved.
4. The newswoman and
her family had problems with childcare arrangements. What is the relationship
between declining birth rates and childcare?
Men spend most of their time at work.
With working wives children spend most of their time in daycare causing
guilt with parents. Because of their
dedication to work many couples choose not to have children.
5. Who cares for
elders in Japan? In the older
generations the daughter in law would care for their elderly in-laws. Today many of the elderly are left on their
own because the women in the family are working.
6. What does Japan’s age
structure look like? What implications does this have? In Japan the elderly out rule the young. The down side is that there will be fewer
people to replace the retiring elder population. This could throw off the economy.
7. How might immigration
help solve this problem? Immigrants
would keep the population up, fill the open spots of employment and keep
consumer purchases up.
8. What is the average
family size worldwide? The average
family worldwide is at or below two children per family.
9. Many countries
encourage families to have more children. It has been found to be easier
to ___cut___ fertility than to __raise______
it.
Sub-Saharan Africa
1. What does
sub-Saharan Africa’s age structure look like? What implications does this have? The sub-Saharan African age structure is
mostly combined of younger population (not even at reproduction age). If they were to stop reproducing their
population would still double.
2. What situations
create tremendous pressures to immigrate?
Falling per capita income and deteriorating social services will cause pressure
to immigrate.
3. Describe the
demographic transition as exemplified in Kenya (starting at 40:21 and in text).The
demographic transition exemplified in Kenya with fallen birth rates. The goal is to have the birth rate and death
rates meet up. Unfortunately in Kenya
AIDS is killing off their population quickly.
4. Death rates from
HIV/AIDS life expectancy has declined from 65 to __49____years.
5. Women in Africa
might have to make a choice between __having a child______ and _being at risk
for AIDS_______.
6. Explain the how the
economic gains of Asian Tigers came about.
The government of four countries took money once used for children and
used it to create jobs for young adults entering the work force. The economic growth was enormous. Helping to eliminate the poverty trap.
7. The key to
population stabilization key is the __education__ and ___liberation_ of women.
8. Why should we care
about other countries? We should care
about other countries because globally it affects all of us.
9. What are two things
that struck you most strongly about the situations in this video? Two things that stuck out the most to me on
the video was the females in India being burned and poisoned because of their
dowry or not having a male child. As a
father to a daughter it would be devastating to know that could happen. The other thing I was surprised about was the
young boy in Japan that had been the only one in his class since
kindergarten. I didn’t realize how low
their child population was.
