Population, Urbanization and the Environment OUTLINE

15.1 Population

1. Demography is the study of the size, composition, distribution, and changes in human population. Demographic variables crucial to understanding population dynamics are fertility rates, mortality rates, life expectancy, and migration rates.
2. Theories on Population Growth
   1. The Malthusian theorem, which Malthus published in 1789, argues that the population will expand at a much faster rate than agriculture, and that people will eventually overwhelm available food and land sources. The Malthusian trap predicts major catastrophe if societies do not limit population and take drastic steps to reduce consumption. Neo-Malthusians agree with this theory and worry about the rapid pace of population growth.
   2. Anti-Malthusians insist that Malthus’s calculations were faulty, and that he could not have predicted how the development of technology would affect population dynamics. Anti-Malthusians are more concerned about population shrinkage and demographic free fall resulting from industrialization.

15.2 Urbanization

Urbanization refers to the shift of people from rural to urban areas. A Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) is a metropolitan area with at least 50,000 people surrounded by an area that is socially and economically integrated with the city and has a population totaling 100,000 or more. A metropolis is a larger city, usually with 500,000 to 1 million (or more) inhabitants. A megalopolis, or megacity, is a group of densely populated metropolises that combine to form a huge urban complex. Urban density is measure by the total number of people per square mile. Surprisingly, the most densely populated city in the United States is Union City, New Jersey, with more residents per square mile than New York City, San Francisco, or Chicago.

1. Trends in Urbanization
   1. Suburbanization is the shift of large segments of the population away from the urban core and toward the edges of cities.
   2. Urban, or suburban, sprawl refers to the peripheral expansion of urban boundaries and is associ­ated with irresponsible or poorly planned development.
   3. Edge cities are suburbs that develop their own centers of employment and commerce. Smart growth advocates emphasize the redevelopment of inner cities or older suburbs to create better communities.
   4. Beginning in the 1950s and 1960s, many upper- and middle-class whites left city centers for the suburbs. This phenomenon, called white flight, left some urban areas abandoned by economically crucial businesses and financial institutions, creating ghettos where poverty and deteriorating infrastructure further exacerbated the problems associated with inner cities. To address the problems in decaying urban centers, urban renewal efforts have included renovation, selective demolition, commercial development, and tax incentives to lure businesses and individuals to invest in the area. Gentrification is another trend in which working-class or poor neighborhoods are transformed into more affluent middle-class communities. Unfortunately, gentrification does not eradicate poverty. Instead, the poor are often forced to move elsewhere because their communities have become too expensive for them.
   5. Rural rebound refers to the population increases in rural areas due both to in-migration of former urban and suburban dwellers and to longtime residents of rural areas who choose to stay.
2. Living in the City
   1. Social atomism is Wirth’s theory that cities are filled with free-floating individuals rather than members of a community. Urbanites are people who live in urban area. Gans separates urbanites into cosmopolites, singles, ethnic villagers, and the deprived.
   2. Sociologists argue that cities provide personal freedom, relaxed moral restraints, relative ano­n­ymity, variety, and diversity, and that this freedom brings with it a form of alienation. The murder of Kitty Genovese in New York City is frequently held up as an example of how city dwellers are apathetic and impersonal. Studies of altruism and helping behaviors found that the higher the number of bystanders, the lower the changes that any of them would attempt to help. Also, pluralistic ignorance may occur when a large population must deal with a problem. If no member of the group calls attention to an emergency, it is likely that all members will continue to ignore the situation.
   3. In contrast, the attacks of September 11, 2001, elicited a great outpouring of support and aid to New York City. Volunteers from all over the country went to New York City to help out. The authors argue that there is no ambiguity in a large-scale emergency such as the September 11th attacks, so people knew how to respond to the tragedy. They also knew where to go and what to do in order to help.
3. Urban legends are a specific modern variety of folklore defined by their believability and their contemporary settings; they are often legitimated or “authenticated” either through personal acquaintances or through media coverage. Urban legends that succeed typically have two main qualities. First, they reflect our concerns, fears, and anxieties about our social world. Second, they inspire an emotional reaction such as anger, fear, disgust, or amusement.

15.3 Environmental Sociology

1. The political economy of the environment is a branch of environmental sociology that focuses on how economic factors influence the way organizations, typically corporations, use the environment, and how this practice is supported by political systems and policies.
2. Environmental attitude, another branch of environmental sociology, focuses on society’s attitudes toward the environment. Generally, humans have had an anthropocentric attitude toward nature. Human exemptionalism is a viewpoint that assumes humans are exempt from natural ecological limits and therefore are able to conquer nature. Environmental sociologists are interested in understanding the processes of attitude change and how attitudes translate into action. They are particularly interested in determining why people are adopting environmentally sensitive views and how to inspire even more people to take this stance.
3. Studies of the environmental movement focus on the origins of the groups involved, their internal structures and social networks, their political roles, and their presence at different social and political levels. Most social scientists date the beginning of the American environmental movement to Henry David Thoreau’s work in the mid-1800s. The conservation era includes the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when preservation was a prominent focus of the environmental movement. State and national parks such as Yosemite, Yellowstone, and the Grand Canyon were established during this period through legislative funding and protection. The modern environmental movement began in the 1960s as a response to Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring. Growing awareness of human-made environmental dangers led to more legislation protecting the environment. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the power and means to investigate ecological crises, organize cleanups, punish offenders, establish further regulations, and research environmentally friendly technologies.
4. Mainstream environmentalism began in the 1980s, when national and international environmental groups became increasingly institutionalized. Grassroots environmentalism is based on community leadership and participation, and is generally free of formal organi­zation and bureaucracy found in mainstream environmental groups. NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) refers to environmental action on a local level, usually by residents who are protecting their families and communities from environmental hazards. The Green Party is a political party founded on the issues of environmentalism, social justice, decentralization, community-based economics, feminism, and diversity. Ecoterrorists, on the other hand, are extremist environmentalists who use violent and often criminal methods to achieve their goals. The environmental justice movement is another group of grassroots environmentalists organized around the concept of environmental inequality and environmental racism.
5. Sustainable development is a controversial new area of environmental sociology. An individual’s ecological footprint is an estimation of how much land and water area is required to produce all the goods that individual consumes and to assimilate his or her generated wastes. Average Americans have a current ecological footprint of approximately thirty acres, three times the individual fair share of the earth’s resources. Working toward sustainable development involves trying to reconcile global economic development with environmental protection.

Population, Cities and the Environment Terms and Concepts

fertility rate

mortality rate

infant mortality rate

life expectancy

migration

immigration

emigration

Malthusian theorem

neo-Malthusian theory

Ehrlich – zero population growth

demographic transition theory

rural

urban

urbanization

global cities

urban density

suburbanization

urban sprawl

white flight

gentrification

simulated cities (CityWalk)

gemeinschaft

gesellschaft

Wirth – social atomization

Gans – urbanites

ethic enclaves

alienation

bystander effect/diffusion of responsibility

civil inattention

pluralistic ignorance

social ecology

environment

biosphere

renewable resources/nonrenewable resources

resource depletion

biodiversity

pollution

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

greenhouse effect

global warming

global dimming

treadmill of production

anthropocentric

human exceptionalism

environmental movement

conservation era

modern environmental movement

mainstream environmentalism

grassroots environmentalism

NIMBY

green party

ecoterrorism

environmental justice

environmental racism

sustainable development

ecological footprint

PROMPT

Our former governor referred to the incidence of intense fires in CA as “the new normal.”

Read the articles here: https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/(choose “Summary”)

here: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/11/climate-change-california-wildfire/

and here: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/04/science/flooding-of-coast-caused-by-global-warming-has-already-begun.html (you may need to access this article through our library – see instructions in the Start Here module)

How do these articles relate to ideas from the chapter/the power points? Please do not summarize the articles, but rather explain specific parts of the articles using ideas and concepts from our chapter. You should explain:

* the link between the demographic transition theory, the increase in population, and climate change, specifically the issues from the articles.

*the link between population size and ecological footprint and specifically the events in the articles

*how to bring about change (focus on the Social Change chapter). Note these articles are from several years ago! Have we made the changes necessary in that time frame? What is being done? Why has/hasn’t the social movement to reduce climate change been successful?

* the link between mode of subsistence and ecological footprint, and specifically the events in the articles.

Make sure you are incorporating key terms when appropriate!

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NO PLAGERISM AND PLEASE USE THE TERMS AND VOCABULARY FROM THE CHAPTER AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE IN THE ANSWER