ENV 101:

Human Population &

Environment
Demography

Saquib Ahmad Khan

Lecturer A
Department of Environmental Science & Management (DESM)
School of Environmental & Life Sciences (SELS)
 Humans- the dominant species

8.7
million species on
earth!

6.5
million on land

All ruled by 1 species 2.2

million in waters
HUMANS!
Human population is so important because:
• We are more than 7.8 billion or 780 crore people!
• We are the dominant species who “control” everything!
• Every single individual on earth need a certain amount of
environmental resources to survive.
• More people = More resources needed
• But resources on Earth are limited.
• It is currently believed that we need the resources of 1.5 earths to
support the current population.
• And so we are exploiting and depleting the natural environmental
resources unsustainably.
History of Human population
is actually very interesting!

We were always too LESS in

NUMBER

We are currently
here
 Experts Have Identified Four Basic Causes of
Environmental Problems
1. Population growth Population Unsustainable
growth resource use

2. Wasteful and unsustainable resource use

3. Poverty Poverty
Excluding
environmental
costs from
market prices

4. Failure to include the harmful environmental costs of goods

and services in market prices
Thomas Malthus’s theory of population growth

First proper scientific work

on population.

English philosopher.

Wrote
“An Essay on the Principle of
Population” (1798)

1766-1834
 Thomas Malthus’s theory of population growth

“An Essay on the Principle of Population”

(1798)
His theory has two basic principles:
•Population grows at a geometric
rate
• 1, 2, 4, 16, 32, etc.
•Food production increases at an
arithmetic rate
• 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. 1766-1834
 The Malthusian Population Trap
“The Malthusian Trap is the theory that population
growth (geometric) is faster than agricultural growth
(arithmetic), a time will come there is not enough food
supply for feeding the population .”
&
The population growth will be “checked” or “limited”
Geometric progression means doubling up!
But food increases arithmetically i.e. (1+1+1+1...)
The Malthusian Population Trap: Types of
“checks”
Population growth will be checked or trapped due lack of food
and other resources.

Malthus proposed 2 types of checks to population growth:

1) Negative/preventive checks – Reasons why people will want

smaller families

2) Positive checks – Reasons that will lead to mass deaths and

population decrease.
 Examples: Negative Checks

Postponement of Marriage Increased food prices

Examples of Positive Checks

War Famine
Disease Deaths!
Concepts about
Population & Environment
The idea of “limits to growth” & limiting factors

The idea of “carrying capacity”

“Tragedy of the commons”

Concept: Limits to growth (of population)
• Populations rise until a limit to growth was
reached.
• Limits to growth are caused by factors known as
limiting factors.
• This means necessary resources supporting
population growth becomes less than needed.
Example:
Population growth can be checked because of the lack of FOOD, or due to
DISEASE, then the lack of FOOD/DISEASE will be known as a limiting factor.
 Concept: Carrying Capacity
Definition:
Maximum population that the environment can sustain (carry)
continuously.

• Depends on the amount and availability of food, habitat, water, and other
necessities (ecological resources) available in the environment.
 What is the earth’s carrying capacity?
2 billion or 40 billion people?

• Some scientists say

2 billion others say
40 billion!

So what’s up???
The carrying capacity of the Earth depends on 2 factors:

Lifestyle

&

Consumption
Patterns of Natural Resource Consumption
Patterns of Natural Resource Consumption
 Tragedy of the commons
CONCEPT:
Describes how shared environmental resources (like water, air,
land etc.) are overused, as each person tries to get maximum
personal benefit from it, and the resource is eventually The tragedy of the commons
concept was first described by
depleted/destroyed biologist Garrett Hardin in 1968.

Example:
Air pollution, water pollution, deforestation etc.
Climate change
What we see of traffic on the roads of Dhaka
DEMOGRAPHY
 What is demography?
DEF:
The scientific study of human population using statistics.
Example:
Population size:
Population growth:
Density:
Distribution:
1. What is the size of World population?
What is world population?
In demographics the world population is the total number of humans
on the earth at a particular time.

Currently it is close to 8 billion.

World population is not equally distributed some countries have more

people than others.
Population
density
• No. of people per sq
km.

• Bangladesh: 1265 per

Km2

• Russia: 9 per Km2

 Was Malthus Wrong?
Link between technology and Population

Malthus did not take into account the impact of

Technology!
Technology can help increase productivity and help
overcome the Malthusian population trap.
Discussion:
How can technology help overcome the
Malthusian Population Trap?
Three Technological Eras
The important thing to
remember is that
technological growth
helps drive population
growth which in turn
helps drive technological
progress.

It is a cyclical process!
 Population Doubling Time
DEF: The number of years it takes the
population of an area to become double in size
with the current rate of population growth.
How is it calculated?
Calculation of population doubling time is
facilitated by the Law of 70.
 The Law of 70
“A population is growing at a constant rate of 1% per
year, it can be expected to double approximately
every 70 years”

If the rate of growth is 2%, then the expected doubling time is

70/2 or 35 years.

QUESTION: What is the doubling time for a population growing

at 5% per year?
Population doubling time of Bangladesh using Law of 70

Current population of Bangladesh: 166 million

Population growth rate: 1.6%

Can you calculate when the population of Bangladesh will be

doubled, that is become 332 million?
 Basic formula in Demography

Population growth = Natural Growth + Net Migration

Natural Growth =(Births– Deaths)

Net Migration = (Immigration– Emigration)

1. Crude Birth Rate (CBR)
Crude birth rate is the number of live births in a year per 1000
of the population of a specified area (ex. Bangladesh)
No. of live births
Formula: CBR= X 1000
Mid year population

Example:
In 2007, there were 3,250 births in a city with population of 223,000.
Therefore: CBR = 3,250/223,000 x 1000
CBR =14.57
So, there were 14.57 births for every 1,000 people in the city
2. Crude Death Rate (CDR)
Crude death rate is the number of deaths in a year per 1000 of
the population of a specified area (ex. Bangladesh)
No. of deaths
Formula: CDR= X 1000
Mid year population

Example:
In 2007, there were 4,000 death in a city with population of 2,000,000.
Therefore: CBR = 4,000 x1000/2,000,000
CDR =2
So, there were 2 deaths for every 1,000 people in the city.
3. Migration
Migration The movement of people across a specified boundary for the
purpose of establishing a new or semi permanent residence.
• International migration (migration between countries)
• Internal migration (migration within a country)
• Rural-urban migration (from village to city)
• Urban-rural migration (from city to village)
Emigration
The process of leaving one country to take up permanent or semi permanent
residence in another.
• Emigration Rate The number of emigrants departing an area of origin per 1,000 population
in that area of origin in a given year.

Immigration
The process of entering one country from another to take up permanent or semi
permanent residence.
• Immigration Rate The number of immigrants arriving at a destination per 1,000 population
at that destination in a given year.

Net Migration = Immigration-Emigration

Difference between emigration and immigration shown as an increase or
decrease of population.
Push and Pull factors of Migration
Push factors
Circumstances in the country or origin that lead people to emigrate.
• No job opportunities
• Poverty
• War
• Environmental disasters
Pull factors
Conditions in the destination country that make immigration attractive:
• Economic opportunity
• Political freedom and (i.e. Democracy)
• Better standards of living
Discussion: Why is migration important?
4. Population growth (increase/size)
Natural Growth
Births and deaths are natural causes of population change. The difference between the birth rate
and the death rate of a country or place is called the natural increase or natural growth.

Formula:
Natural Growth = Crude Birth Rate – Crude Death Rate
• + natural increase
• - natural decrease

Net Migration = immigrants – emigrants

“Population Growth = Natural Growth + Net
Migration”
4. Population growth (increase/size)
“Population Growth = Natural Growth + Net Migration”
To get an idea of how fast people are being
added to our planet

http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/#total
Now you know why
Family Planning
&
Population Control
are so important!
6. Total Fertility Rate (TFR)
DEF: The average number of children that would be born to a woman
over her lifetime.

What is the TFR of Bangladesh?

2.2
When TFR = 2.1 we call it Replacement Level Fertility.
6. Life expectancy
DEF: The average number of years a person in a specific population
may be expected to live.
• Calculated in years
• Different for men and women
Bangladesh : Life Expectancy (2015)

Males Total Females

70.6 71.8 73.1
World Rank: 99
Importance of demography
That’s all for today!