Human Population

Human Population

Answer each of the following questions in at least 100 words.

1. Describe the two types of population growth (i.e., describe what the graphs that represent the two types of growth look like and explain why they look like they do). Which type of growth describes the human population growth pattern?

The two types of population growth are Exponential growth and Logistic growth. Exponential growth is the expansion of a population in an ideal, unlimited environment. The exponential growth chart calculates the size of each generation by multiplying the current population size by the number of births minus the number of deaths. Starting with a base population number, if there are more births than deaths in each generation, the population will grow. If the number of deaths outweighs the number of births, the population will decrease. Logistic growth charts take into account the limiting factors, such as carrying capacity, which is the maximum population size the environment can sustain. When the carrying capacity is reached, population growth slows to zero.

2. More people mean more resources extracted from the environment to support those people. Often, this results in conflicts between environmental issues (e.g., pollution, biodiversity loss) and socioeconomic issues (e.g., employment). What rights do people (governments and non-governmental organizations) have to interfere with how another sovereign nation chooses to manage its lands? For example, if the government of the United States is willing to risk pollution and ecosystem destruction to tear down millions of acres of forest and remove mountain tops to extract coal (which provides energy and employment for their citizens), should other people intervene? Be specific in how others can/should or not intervene or influence sovereign nations.

People should have a right to help protect the environment of the planet we all live on. That being said, interfering with...