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C H a P T E R 15 distribute or CHAPTER 15 post, copy, © Dirk Meister/Moment/Getty Images notENVIRONMENTAL SOCIOLOGY Do Population, Urbanization, and Climate Change pp Humans are confined to this one moderate-sized planet on which we depend for survival. The challenges of controlling population size, migration patterns, the spread of disease, and climate change add to the need for global cooperation. 456 Copyright ©2020 by SAGE Publications, Inc. This work may not be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without express written permission of the publisher. ME (AND MY NEIGHBORS) LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS AND COMMUNITY Local schools and community organizations serve the local population. MICRO NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS, INSTITUTIONS, AND ETHNIC distribute SUBCULTURES MESO Population trends influence institutions such as politics, economics, and education.or post, WHAT WILL YOU LEARN IN THIS CHAPTER? SOCIETY National governments set This chapter will help you to do the following: policies that influence birth incentives, birth control, and 15.1 Define environmental sociology MACRO immigration. 15.2 Illustrate the pattern of the world’s population growth over time GLOBALcopy, COMMUNITY Cross-national migration 15.3 Give examples of institutional influences patterns can spread on fertility, mortality, and migration epidemics or meet pressing needs for labor. 15.4 Describe individual decisions that not affect population patterns 15.5 Discuss national and global urbanization trends 15.6 Explain why moving from rural to Do urban settings can lead to anomie 15.7 Explain three major environmental problems facing urban areas in the Global South 15.8 Describe how climate change is a social issue Copyright ©2020 by SAGE Publications, Inc. This work may not be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without express written permission of the publisher. THINK ABOUT IT What is the population profile of your hometown (e.g., economic status of Micro: Small groups and local residents, ethnic and racial composition, and recent immigrant groups)? community Where do you fit into that population profile? Meso: National institutions, complex Why do people move from rural areas to urban areas? What problems might organizations, and ethnic groups this pattern of movement create? How do global issues relating to demographic changes, urbanization, and the Macro: National and global systems environment affect your family and local community? hen Sally Ride, the first U.S. woman in previous chapters have moved from micro- to macro- space, looked down at Earth, she, like other level analysis. In this chapter, however, because of the W astronauts who have the opportunity to nature of the material and the need to explain certain see the planet from far above, experienced the overview issues before the micro issues make sense, we discuss effect. This occurs when Earth is viewed from a new macro-level patterns in world population growth first. angle, from the perspective of space. Ride described the We then describe meso-leveldistribute institutional influences impact it had on her. and micro-level factors affecting population patterns. We close by looking at how climate change impacts all Mountain ranges, volcanoes, and river deltas appeared levels of society. or in salt-and-flour relief, all leading me to assume the role of a novice geologist. In such moments, it was easy to imag- Macro-Level Patterns in ine the dynamic upheavals that created jutting mountain ranges and the internal wrenching that created rifts and World Population Growth seas. I also became an instant believer in plate tectonics; Table 15.1 illustrates the current state of the human India really is crashing into Asia, and Saudi Arabia population. As you can see, there are now more than 7.5 and Egypt really are pulling apart, making the Red Sea billion people on Earth, and the number is increasing wider. Even though their respective motion is really no post,rapidly. more than mere inches a year, the view from overhead The world’s human population grew sporadically makes theory come alive. (Quoted in Beaver 2012) over the millennia, but the explosion of human beings on the planet in the past 2.5 centuries is stunning. If we Ride’s perspective changed, and, thus, her ability to rec- collapsed all human history into one 24-hour day, the ognize and understand the world also changed. Ride saw period since 1750 would consume 1 minute. Yet 25% and noticed things she had not seen or noticed before of all humans have lived during this 1-minute period. because of this new view of the world. In this chapter, you In the 200 years from 1750 to 1950, the world’s popu- will look at the environment fromcopy, a sociological perspec - lation mushroomed from 800 million to 2.5 billion. tive and, in the process, see and notice patterns you may On October 12, 1999, the global population reached not have paid attention to before. Environmental sociologists look at both natural com- qpTABLE 15.1 munities (ecology) and human communities and how Demographics of the World, 2017 they interact withnot one another (Bell and Ashwood 2016). In doing so, they examine population growth, move- World ments in population, and the impact humans have on the Population 7,576,951,385 environment. Today, as the human population quickly increases, there are record numbers of displaced people Births per year 148,779,660 movingDo across the world, and climate change threatens Deaths per year 58,619,319 the very future of the human population. Natural annual increase 90,160,341 We look first at population growth and then at urbanization and the impacts of climate change. The Source: Countrymeters 2018. 458 PART V • SOCIAL DYNAMICS Copyright ©2020 by SAGE Publications, Inc. This work may not be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without express written permission of the publisher. © Getty/Mario Tama pp The overcrowding in some cities means that governments have a difficult time providing the infrastructure and services needed for the growing urban population. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is one example. distribute 6 billion. It has now expanded to over 7.5 billion fierce competition for less and less fertile land and water with almost all the latest growth in the Global South resources (Gettleman 2017). (Countrymeters 2018). As societies develop, birthrates tend to go down. For THINKINGor example, typical European young people often wait until their late 20s or even 30s to start a family, post- SOCIOLOGICALLY poning children until their education is complete and Do you have a choice in how many children you will have? (Or, a job is in hand. They have access to effective birth if you have children already, did you have a choice in how control options, widely used throughout their societ- many you had?) Explain. What might influence (or what did ies. Unlike many children in the Global South, where influence) your decision to have a certain number of children? How might your decision differ if you lived in a different birthrates are higher, most children born in the Global post,country? Should global patterns—which include food North will survive to old age with access to health care shortages and climate change—be a consideration in the size and good nutrition. Parents in the Global North do not of your family and your neighbors’ families? Why or why not? feel as though they must have many children in order to see some grow to maturity. Life expectancy, the num- ber of years a person in a society can expect to live, ranges We know this population information thanks to widely across the world. It is 50.6 years in Chad, the research gained through demography, the study of human nation with the lowest level, and 89.4 in Monaco, the populations. When demographers speak of popula- country with the highest copy,level of life expectancy (World tions, they mean all permanent societies, states, communities, Factbook 2017d). adherents of a common religious faith, racial or ethnic groups, Although some countries have birthrates below pop- kinship or clan groups, professions, and other identifiable cat- ulation replacement levels, the world’s population con- egories of people. Demographers examine various aspects tinues to grow because of the skyrocketing growth rate of a population, including the size, location, movement, in other countriesnot and because of population momen- concentration in certain geographical areas, and changing tum caused by the large number of individuals of child- characteristics. For example, the next Engaging Sociology bearing age having children. After a baby boom, even asks you to imagine that the entire world population is only though birthrates per couple may drop, the number of 100 people and look at how it would be composed given Dowomen of childbearing age becomes very high, result- the current world distribution of certain characteristics. ing in continued growth in population size. Population Why did the world’s population grow so slowly and growth is particularly an issue in many Global South then, recently, so rapidly? Sociologists look for patterns nations in Africa, where climate change–induced in population growth over time to answer these demo- desertification and surging populations have led to graphic questions. ChApteR 15 • ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIOLOGY: POPULATION, URBANIZATION, AND CLIMATE CHANGE 459 Copyright ©2020 by SAGE Publications, Inc. This work may not be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without express written permission of the publisher. ENGAGING SOCIOLOGY
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