WEEK 2

1. Lecture slides and notes:

Review - IPAT

First "law" of ecology - Everything is connected

Population Growth Models

• "exponential" growth model is one alternative
• constant growth rate leads to increasing increments
• J-curve
  • matter of scale of observation
  • Excel simulation of exponential growth and scale

SYSTEMS VIEW

• introduction
  • small set of objects and processes that have to fit together
  • iconography
  • simulations
• steady state

Human population growth and resources

• models
• simple resource limitation
• Malthus - population increases exponentially,
• Boserup - human activity on the land changes productivity

Demographic transition

• development (lower mortality, economic growth, control birth rates)
• SYSTEMS VIEW
• factors that are associated with the demo transition
  • can't prove causal linkages
  • what's your plan for development

Population growth and poverty

• Environment and Poverty
• Environment and Health

Ethics of change effort

2. In-class assessment:

 

In the context that "everything is connected"

and the statement that "correlation is not necessarily cause":

1. Explain in your own words why "correlation is not necessarily cause"

2. Give an example of how the list of factors on the demographic transition page may have helped move a population out of the population growth/poverty trap.

 

3. Reading in the text - "Multiple Perspectives and Approaches to Complex Environmental Problems"

Reading: Chapter 5: Systems

 

 

4. Readings from Wikipedia and Encyclopedia of Earth:

• demographic transition
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_transition
  • http://www.eoearth.org/article/Human_population_explosion?topic=54245
• over-population
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overpopulation
• Malthus
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malthusian_catastrophe
• Boserup
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boserup
• Poverty
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_trap

5. On-line activities:

Videos

Hans Rosling - TED Talk (10 minutes)
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/hans_rosling_on_global_population_growth.html

Simulations:

introductory simulation model to learn how the program works
http://forio.com/simulate/simulation/rueterj/simulation1-water-flow/

population growth models to compare exponential vs. limited growth
http://forio.com/simulate/simulation/rueterj/simulation2-growth-curves/

demographic transition - to be added

 

6. Learning objectives:

week 2 learning objectives

 

7. Link to the on-line assignment:

This "quiz" or "on-line assignment" pulls questions from the learning objectives. You are expected to study the material and then take the quiz. You can use the website to answer the questions but you cannot, ethically, use your friends or classmates as resources. All work that you write down is to be a reflection of your understanding.

The quiz has several straight forward questions and one question at the end that is in the format of a analysis (identify important parts) and synthesis (put back together).

go to D2L and look for week2-quiz

 

8. Week 2 Quiz feedback