GEOG 102 – Population, Resources, and the Environment

Professor: Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue

Topic 1 – Introduction to Population, Resources,

and the Environment

A – Population Geography
B – Resources
C – The Environment
A Population Geography

■ 1. Demography and Population Geography

• How population issues are investigated?
■ 2. Global Demographic Trends
• What are the major global demographic trends?
■ 3. The Agricultural Revolution
• What permitted the creation of the first civilizations?
■ 4. The Industrial Revolution
• How the modern society emerged?
1 Demography and Population Geography

■ Demography
• Systematic analysis of population phenomena through empirical,
statistical and mathematical methods.
• Interested about changes in the population size and
composition.
■ Population Geography
• Concerned by the spatial aspects of population:
• 1- Simple description of the location of the population.
• 2- Explanation of its spatial pattern and distribution.
• 3- Geographical analysis (processes such as urbanization and migration).
• Demography rather emphasizes on time while population
geography emphasizes on space.
1 Percentage of Hispanic Population, 2000

Less than 8%
8% to 25%
25% to 50%
More than 50%
1 Diffusion of Homo Sapiens Around the World

By 20,000 BC By 2,000 BC
By 500,000 BC
By 12,000 BC

By 1,000,000 BC By 11,000 BC

AD 500

Origins:
7 million BC
33,000 BC
1,200 BC
By 40,000 BC
AD 1,000
By 10,000 BC
2 Demography and Population Geography

■ Evolution of the world’s population

• Long historical process:
• Has been very slow up to recently.
• 300 million people around year 0.
• Remained small until the last 250 years.
• A new growth trend:
• Has increased almost exponentially.
• From 1.6 billion in 1900 to 6 billion in 1999.
• To what it can be linked?
■ Population “explosion”
• Defines a process of strong demographic growth.
• Started after the Second World War.
• About 80 million people added each year.
• Major concern for the future of humanity.
2 World Population, 0-2050 (in billions)

0
0 250 500 750 1000 1250 1500 1750 2000
 Population Added to the Global Population, 1950-
2 2005 (in millions)
100 2.5

90

80 2

70

Growth Rate (%)

60 1.5
Millions

50

40 1

30

20 0.5
Addition
10 Growth Rate

0 0
50
53
56
59
62
65
68
71
74
77
80
83
86
89
92
95
98
01
04
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
20
20
2 World Population 1804-2054 (in billions)

10
9 2054
26 years
8 15 years 2028
7 2013
14 years
6 12 years 1999
5 1987
13 years
4 1974
14 years
3 33 years 1960
2 127 years 1927
1 1804
0
1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 2050
2 10 Largest Countries, 2001 and 2050 (in millions)

0 500 1000 1500 0 500 1000 1500

China India

India China

US US

Indonesia Pakistan

Brazil Indonesia

Russia Nigeria

Pakistan Bangladesh

Bangladesh Brazil

Japan Congo

Nigeria Ethiopia

2001 2050
3 The Agricultural Revolution

■ Nature
• Started around 10,000 BC (12,000 years ago).
• First major demographic change in human history.
• World’s population was around 5-10 million of mostly nomadic
tribes.
• Likely occurred around the Fertile Crescent:
• Mesopotamia (“The land between rivers).
• Tigris and Euphrates rivers in today’s Iraq.
• Domestication of crops and animals:
• Large-scale agricultural production possible and leading to agrarian
societies.
• “Dawn of civilization”.
• Invention of the plow, the wheel, writing, and numbers.
3 Major Agricultural Hearths

Mesopotamia Huang He
Indus (4,500 B.C.)
(6,500 B.C.)
(4,700 B.C.)

Ganges
(4,700 B.C.)
Nile
(5,000 B.C.)

Irrigated agriculture
Collective effort
Governments
3 The Agricultural Revolution

■ Change of lifestyles
• Population went from nomadic to sedentary lifestyle.
• Created private property, tools and the accumulation of wealth.
• Subsequently the creation of the state.
• By 1500, 20% of the world was composed of statehoods.
■ Agricultural surpluses
• Farming allowed greater population densities and the generation
of an agricultural surplus.
• A growing share of the population was able to engage in non-
agricultural activities.
• Induced all sorts of innovations such as irrigation, craftsmanship,
and metallurgy.
3 The Agricultural Revolution

■ Specialization
• Development of trade.
• Creation of the first cities.
Agricultural Innovation
■ Stratification
Food Surpluses • An elite gained control of surplus
resources and defended their
• Urbanization position with arms.
• Sedentary lifestyle
• Centralization of power and
Division of Labor
resources:
• Led to the development of the
• Specialization state.
• Stratification • The rich and powerful developed
the institutions of the state to
further consolidate their gains.
3 The Agricultural Revolution

■ The Feudal society

• A system of bonds and obligations:
• Royalties from the serf to the lord of a share of the agricultural production.
• Highly constraining system:
• Administrative/legal (Lord) and religious (Church) control.
• Fixation of the productive forces (tools and labor) in agricultural
production.
• Economy:
• Low levels of productivity (subsistence level).
• Profits taken away by the lord/church, inhibiting any increases in
agricultural productivity.
• 80 to 90% of the population was in agriculture while the other share were
artisans and landowners.
• Different types of feudal societies (China, Japan, Europe).
3 The Agricultural Revolution

■ Demographic consequences
• High birth rates:
• A feudal society required large families.
• Help agricultural activities that were very labor intensive.
• No contraceptives.
• High death rates:
• Wars between competing city-states.
• Frequent disruption of food supplies.
• Medicine almost non-existent.
• Epidemics: One famous plague, the Black Death, reduced European
population by 25% between 1346 and 1348.
• Life expectancy around 30-35 years.
• The population growth rate remained low.
• Small cities of at most 25,000 people.
4 The Industrial Revolution

■ Nature
• Started at the end of the eighteenth century (1750-1780).
• Transformations first observed in England.
• Demographic transition of the population:
• Fast growth rate.
• This demographic theory is discussed in a subsequent chapter.
• Economic and social transformations.
■ Technological innovations
• Use of new materials (steel, iron, chemicals).
• Usage of thermal energy to produce mechanical energy.
• Substitution of machines to human and animal labor.
• Production (factory).
• Transportation (rail).
• Health (medicine).
4 The Industrial Revolution

■ Agriculture
• Less agricultural population.
• Growth of the production of food.
• Mechanization and fertilizers.
• Scientific and commercial agriculture.
• Declining food prices.
■ Social changes
• Significant urbanization.
• Creation of a labor class.
• Migration from the countryside to cities:
• By 1870 more of the half of the population of the first industrial nations
was no longer in the agricultural sector.
• England had reached this stage since 1820.
• Towards 1901, 75% of the English population lived in cities.
4 Share of the Population in Agriculture, 1820-1910

90
80
70
60
1820
50 1850
40 1870
1910
30
20
10
0
Great Britain France Germany United States
4 European Control of the World, 1500-1950

Europe

Territory the has been controlled by an European

nation at some point from 1500 to 1950
4 Major Phases of Demographic Change

■ Agricultural Revolution
Agricultural • Feudal society.
Revolution • Wealth from agriculture and land
ownership.
12,000 years • Slow demographic growth.
■ Industrial Revolution
Industrial • Wage labor society.
Revolution • Wealth from industry and capital
ownership.
200 years • Fast demographic growth.
■ Post-Industrial Revolution
• Information society.
Post-Industrial
• Wealth from technological
Revolution development.
• Slow demographic growth.
4 Major Phases of Socioeconomic Change

Stone Age Feudalism Industrial Planetary

City-state, Global
Organization Tribe / Village Nation-state
Kingdom governance

Hunting and Settled Industrial

Economy Globalization
gathering agriculture system

Communications Language Writing Printing Internet

B Resources

■ 1. Types of Resources
• What are the major types of resources and what do they imply?
■ 2. The Renewable / Non-Renewable Dichotomy
• What is the difference between a renewable and a non-
renewable resource?
■ 3. Resources, Technology and Society
• In which way technology influences the quantity, quality and
availability of resources?
• Are resources a social product?
■ 4. Resource Growth and Decline
• How can resources be created and destroyed?
1 Types of Resources

Natural
■ Context
• A resource is something held in
Minerals reserve that can be used for a
purpose.
Biological resources • Three major categories of
resources.
Geographical

■ Natural resources
Endowments • Derived from physiographical
Location conditions.
■ Economic resources
Human • Derived from human activities.
■ Geographical resources
Capital • Derived by spatial
characteristics.

Economic
1 Types of Resources

Human Population and level of qualification. Commonly referred as the workforce

resources

Capital Medium of exchange. “Portable resource”. Measure the amount of resources

(money) available to an economy.

Location Grants access to markets and resources. Derive wealth acting as intermediary
places (Panama, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Netherlands).

Endowments Scenery, mountains, beaches and coral reefs. Resources when tourism is
involved.

Biological Used to sustain life. Can be converted. Soil, water, and forestry resources.
resources

Mineral Fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, oil), metallic minerals (iron, aluminum, copper)
resources and non-metallic minerals (Nitrogen, calcium, potash, sulfur, salt, sand).
2 The Renewable / Non-renewable Dichotomy

■ Context
• Resources do not have a purpose if they are not used.
• Consumption of resources leads to a dichotomy:
• Renewable resources and non-renewable resources.
• Resources are unevenly used:
• US: 5% of the population and 40% of the world’s consumption.
• 1/3 third of the world’s resources have already been used up.
■ Non-renewable resources
• Oil and minerals.
• Formed over a time framework involving geologic time.
• Petroleum:
• Extracted at a rate faster than being replenished.
• At some point their supply will be exhausted.
• Oil production will peak around 2005-2010 and drop.
 World Annual Oil Production (1990-2002) and
2 Estimated Resources (1900-2100)

30
Actual
Predicted
25

20
Billions of barrels

15

10

0
1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050 2060 2070 2080 2090 2100
 World Mineral Reserves (years of production left),
2 1998

Zinc

Lead

Copper

Tin

Mercury

Nickel

Iron Ore

Bauxite

0 25 50 75 100 125 150 175 200 225

2 The Renewable / Non-renewable Dichotomy

■ Renewable resources
• Replenishment can occur on a human time scale:
• Years, decades, centuries.
• Include soils, forests, fish, animal herds, etc.
■ Soils
• Generally considered to be a renewable resource.
• Takes a minimum of 200 years for soils to develop to the point
where they can support a permanent vegetative cover.
• 1000 years before a soil can be considered as mature, meaning
it has a fully developed profile.
• Erosion is extremely important because growing populations do
not provide adequate time for soils to regenerate fully.
2 The Renewable / Non-renewable Dichotomy

■ Forests
• In some areas, the rates of deforestation far surpass the natural
ability of the forest to regenerate.
• In these situations, positive human intervention is needed to
maintain the renewability of the resource.
■ Water
• Human habitation has extended over ever more marginal lands.
• Irrigation has increased in many dry areas.
• Depletion of underground aquifers and a lowering of the water
table threatens the sustainability of the system.
3 Resources, Technology and Society

■ Technology
• Concept of resource is tied to:
• Technology.
• Technological change.
• Culture controlling the technology.
• Definition:
• Processes according to which tools and machines are constructed.
• Insure a control of the physical environment.
• Comes from the Greek word teckne, which means manual expertise, and
logia, which means a field of knowledge
• Therefore technology means the control, or the science, of manual
expertise.
• The more it is developed, the further the control and the
transformation of matter is possible.
3 Resources, Technology and Society

Science ■ Nuance
Comprehension of the • Technique rests mainly on a way to
laws of physical make use of experience.
systems.
• Technology requires the systematic
usage of science and especially of the
Research
scientific method.
Technology • Relationship between science,
technology and production (the market).
Level of technical
expertise over matter. • Scientific research helps discover or
improve a technology.
Development • Modifies the production while creating
Production new goods available or permitting a
more efficient way to produce.
Practical use of a level
of technical expertise.
3 Resources, Technology and Society

■ Resources and culture

• A society expresses a set of needs.
• An oil field would be useless to an agricultural society but of
prime importance for an industrial society.
• Some cultures favor specific sectors of activity.
• In other cultures, resources are strictly controlled.
■ Consumerism
• Culture can also illustrate a level of resource consumption:
• American consumerism.
• A culture of debt.
• Consumption of resources part of social ideals.
• Mass consumption requires mass production.
• North America and Western Europe account for 12% of the
global population but account for 60% of the consumption.
 World Materials Use, 1970-1995 (billions of short
3 tons)

12

10

World
6
United States
4

0
1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995
3 Annual Resource Consumption per Person, 1997

Paper (kg/pers.)
India
Meat (kg / pers.)
Motor Gasoline (L/pers.)

Mexico

United States

France

Japan

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500

3 Global Share of Private Consumption, 1997 (billion)

$257, 1%
$3,268, 18%

High Income Countries

Middle Income Countries
Low Income Countries

$14,575, 81%
3 Resources, Technology and Society

■ The “Resource Curse”

• Many resource-rich countries have the poorest population.
• Prone to authoritarian rule, slow growth, corruption and conflict.
• Resources used to finance armies, corruption and patronage.
• Under investment in infrastructures, utilities, health and
education.
• Civil wars to gain control of resources.
• Inverse relationship between natural resources and democracy.
4 Resources Growth and Decline

■ Context
• A resource is not a fixed quantity.
• Since the industrial revolution the quantity of resources have
been considerably expanded.
■ Economic development
• A resource is useless if there is no demand for it.
• Each percentage of population growth requires about 3% of
economic growth for support.
• Economic development expands the demand for resources and
their exploitation:
• The development of the automobile industry has expanded several types
of resources, notably oil and steel.
• The current boom in the computer industry has expanded exponentially
information-related resources.
4 Gross World Product, 1950-2001

8,000 50

7,000 45
40
6,000
35

Trillion 2000 $US

5,000 30
2000 $US

4,000 25

3,000 20
15
2,000
GWP per person 10
1,000 GWP 5
0 0
50 53 56 59 62 65 68 71 74 77 80 83 86 89 92 95 98 01
19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 20
4 Technology and Resource Quality

■ Technological development
• Relationships between resources
and technology.
• Technological development
High quality generally enable the exploitation of
resources resources that were not available.
• Access to new types of resources:
Technology

Medium quality • Current mining technology enables

to have access to mineral resources
resources that were unavailable before.
• Notably in terms of depth and
Low quality concentrations.
resources • Advances in agricultural techniques
have led to increased yields.
Availability • Technology enables access to lower
quality resources.
• Environmental consequences:
• Lower quality resources are
generally more polluting.
 Concentration of Copper Needed to be Economically
4 Mined, 1880-2000 (in %)

3.5

2.5

1.5

0.5

0
1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000
4 Resources Growth and Decline

■ Available and total resources

• Available resources:
• Quantity and quality of resources given the current level of economic and
technological development.
• Total resources:
• Potential amount of resources that can be exploited given sufficient levels
of economic and technological development.
• In a closed world, the amount of material resources is finite.

= This is what you have, no less, no more

4 Available and Total Resources

Total Resources

ED1 ED2
Technological Development

TD2
TD1
Available
Resources
Available
Resources

Economic Development
4 Resources Growth and Decline

■ Resource loss due to demand

• Drops in demand:
• Often lead to a related drop in the quantity of resources.
• Very few people are still using horses as a mean of transportation.
• Synthetic rubber has replaced natural rubber grown in rubber trees.
• Integrated circuits have replaced transistors which have replaced vacuum
valves.
• Agricultural products:
• Variations in prices (and thus demand) tend to be accompanied by a
related drop of the production and of cultivated surfaces.
4 Resources Growth and Decline

■ Resource loss due to usage and non-usage

• Some types of resources are lost each time they are used.
• Oil burning and food consumption decrease available petroleum and
agricultural resources.
• Agricultural resources:
• Takes much less time to be replenished.
• Often on a yearly basis.
• Oil:
• Can take several millions of years.
• Resources can also be lost if they are not used:
• Lumber and food.
• Fresh water is lost to the oceans.
• Resources can be wasted.
4 Municipal Waste in the United States, 1997 (%)

26%
31%
Paper
Plastics
Food
6% Glass
Other

13%
24%
4 Resources Growth and Decline

■ Resource loss due to destruction

• Natural and man causes can destroy resources.
• Forest fires reduce the quantity of lumber.
• Weather hazards destroy fields, property and production
capacities.
• Pollution reduces natural resources such as water.
• Conflicts have destroyed huge quantities of resources, material
and human alike, throughout history.
C The Environment

■ 1. The Environmental System

• What is the environment and what are the interactions between
its components?
■ 2. The World’s Climate
• What describe and explains the variations in precipitation and
temperature?
1 The Environmental System

■ Concept
• The environment can be
conceived as a system.
Atmosphere • Set of interactions between the
elements of the biosphere.
• Includes the atmosphere, the
hydrosphere, the lithosphere and
Ecosphere the ecosphere.

Biosphere
1 The Environmental System
Atmosphere
Gas envelop surrounding
the earth.
Nitrogen (78%), oxygen
(21%), and traces
(remaining 1%) of carbon
dioxide, argon, water vapor
and other components.
Lithosphere Hydrosphere Ecosphere
Thin crust between the Accumulation of water in all Set of all living organisms,
mantle and the atmosphere. its states (solid, liquid and including animals and
Around 100 km thick. gas). vegetal.
Oxygen (47%), silicon Elements dissolved it in
(28%), aluminum (8%), iron (sodium, magnesium,
(5%), calcium (4%), sodium calcium, chloride and
(3%), potassium (3%) and sulfate).
magnesium (2%) in a
crystalline state.
Water covers around 71% of Very complex set of
the earth’s surface: 97% in relationships with the
oceans; 2% in ice (north and atmosphere, hydrosphere
south poles); 1% in rivers, and lithosphere.
lakes, ground water and
atmospheric vapor.
2 The World’s Climate

■ Nature
• The main impact of climate on population and resources is
related to its influence on food production and on comfort.
• In extreme climatic conditions (hot or cold), large efforts must be
made to support human life.
• Climate is mostly composed of precipitation and temperature.
■ Precipitation
• Involves the amount of water, in all its forms (rain, snow, hail,
fog, condensation), that falls on the ground.
• Influenced by many factors such as latitude, wind direction and
altitude.
2 The World’s Climate

■ Convectional rainfall
• Mostly during the summer, almost
everyday around the tropics.
• Hot temperature causes rapid
Condensation evaporation from water masses
and the biomass.
Evaporation • As the air climbs it cools and
during the late afternoon, torrential
rain falls.
■ Orographic rainfall
Wind • High mountain ranges force air
masses to climb.
• As the air climbs it cools and rain
Condensation falls.
• Highest levels of precipitation are
on the Indian side of the
Himalayas (more than 30 feet of
precipitation per year).
2 Mean Annual Precipitation

D D
C
B
Less than 100mm B
100mm to 200 mm
200mm to 400mm
A
400mm to 600mm
A
600mm to 1,000mm
1,000mm to 1,500mm
B B
1,500mm to 2,000mm
2,000mm to 3,000mm
C C
More than 3,000mm

Equator: A band between
10 degrees north and 10
degrees south. The
rainiest areas of the
world (conventional
rainfall).
Low latitudes: Between Middle latitudes: 20 to 50 High latitudes:
10 and 30 degrees north degrees north and 20 to Low precipitations (little
and 10 and 30 degrees 50 degrees south. convection).
south.
Low precipitations
2 The World’s Climate

■ Temperature
• Number of days without freezing.
• Important component of temperature.
• Rough indication of the growing season.
• For tropical regions, this figure is zero.
• Vegetation grows year long, while for middle latitudes, winter can be more
or less long.
• Latitude, altitude and water masses and major factors influencing
temperature.
2 Average Insolation by Month and by Latitude

600

500

400 0
20
300 40
60
200 90

100

0
J F M A M J J A S O N D