Sustainable Development, Poverty and Population Growth

Thesis: The topic of human population growth is an important issue due to its impacts upon people in developing countries, economics, religion, food production, and the environment; without any limitations, population growth can lead to negative consequences, such as famine and environmental destruction, or even positive outcomes, such as potential economic growth.

In this project, I will examine the relative rate of population growth for the individual countries of a selected region. I chose ten countries in Africa: Morocco, Egypt, Sudan, Mali, Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, Angola, and South Africa, one country from Eastern Europe, Estonia, one country from Asia, China, one country from the Middle East, Iran, one country from South America, Bolivia, and the United States. Below, I will rank each of the countries from highest to lowest in each of the categories concerning population growth and describe their relationships. Population growth is influenced by multiple factors, such as, population policies, culture, and geography.

Even if our world’s fertility rate is falling, our population will continue to grow from when the fertility rates were high. The populations momentum is tied into the Demographic Transition concept because it is based off of four stages. According to our book, the four stages all rely on the falling and rising rates of fertility and death. Population momentum falls under the third stage of the Demographic Transition because of the fertility rate falling. Even though the fertility rate has lowered, that generation will live longer, so our populations will continue to grow for another twenty years. By that time, the fertility rate could begin to grow again. It is an ever-changing transition. “Urbanization, modernization, and the empowerment of women push fertility rates downward, thus ushering in the final stage of the Demographic Transition. Put another way, the urbanization of society - if also associated with modernization and women’s rights - helps slow the rate of growth” (Smith, 2010, pg.

The demographic transition model, derived by famed demographer Warren Thompson, is a model that conveys the demographic stage in which a certain country fits. This is broken up into five major stages. In stage 1, birth rates and death rates are high. This trend was common all around the world before the Industrial Revolution. So, population remains constant, however it can have major swings as events like wars or pandemics occur. Next, in stage 2, modern medicine becomes available and so it lowers death rates all while birth rates remain high; therefore, the population grows rapidly. Many of the least developed countries today are in this stage of the model. Next, in stage 3, birth rates decrease, almost always as a result of the improvement in economic conditions, women having more rights, and contraception being available. Population growth continues, however at a slower rate. Many of the developing countries today are in stage 3. In stage 4, birth and death rates are both very low. This fact stabilizes the population. Countries that fall in this stage tend to have strong economies, high levels of education available to most anyone, high quality healthcare, a large amount of women are working, and a fertility rate of around two children per woman during her childbearing years. Most of the developed countries today fall into this stage of the model. Stage 5 of the demographic

The majority of population growth in the next century is expected to be concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa because many of those regions are in developmental stages where infant mortality is still high, as are birth rates, resulting in a high natural increase rate. Because China and India have already gone through much of the social developments that have educated their people and has created lower fertility rates, and has lowered their population projections. Both of these reasons have resulted in African countries having much smaller doubling times in their populations compared to those in Asia.

Merely dismissing Malthus’s argument as doomsday nonsense overlooks the reality that indeed, the global population strains natural resources and furthers environmental degradation. This green version of Malthusianism more aptly addresses the consequences that exponential population growth has on our society. Water is often seen in a Malthusian light as scarcity, in areas like Yemen, are exacerbated by high population growth. Although the absolute amount of water on the globe is enough to sustain the world’s population, it is not distributed equally, resulting in scarcity for certain populations. Moreover, with increases in populations, our pollution destroys lands and GHG emissions continue to exacerbate climate change. These effects are most greatly suffered by the poorest as they are often dependent upon the land and are the most vulnerable in the case of a natural disaster. Currently, industrial nations consume a disproportionately large amount of the world’s resources and already strain ecological limits. As the global south continues to develop, so will their consumption. This model of high consumption seen in the first world cannot be sustained and impossible for developing nations to reproduce given the ecological limits of the earth. As the middle class in countries like India and China rapidly grow, it is important that governments—particularly in developed nations—face the

The demographic transition is compiled of four stages that attempt to summarize the population shifts and economic development of countries. It is based on the levels of human fertility and mortality, birth rates, and death rates to be precise. These levels of birth and death have correlated with the evolution of industrialization and urbanization of areas. It illustrates the idea that over time there has been a shift from high birth rates and death rates to low rates of birth and death. It originated to describe the Western Experience in Europe, that first moved throughout the four stages.

The concept of ‘sustainable development’ is one that has faced heated debates for decades now. A seemingly harmless concept, it raises a lot of questions as to what it really entails and how exactly it can be achieved. But with more than 1.3 billion people living in abject poverty (less than $1.25 a day), and with a reported 22,000 children dying every day as a result of poverty (UNICEF), the debate for Sustainable Development becomes interesting as it questions the extremity of economic growth policies, in the war against poverty. Many note economic growth and development as the only tool for poverty alleviation. Roemer and Gugerty, for example, report that GDP growth of 10% per year is associated with income growth of 10% for the poorest 40% of the population. However, others question the extent to which economic growth should be put above other socio-economic factors. Lele points out that the focus on economic growth has led to important ecological and social sustainability, taking the backseat. He argues that due to strong emphasis on economic growth, not enough attention is paid to social equity, and economic stability within the development discourse.

During the 1960s, dire Malthusian warnings about the impact of overpopulation, consumption and resource depletion caused only a ripple of concern in the international community as the Green Revolution and modern birth control methods and practices appeared to provide a viable solution to these problems. Unfortunately, even though innovations in agricultural practices have increased yields even further than during the second half of the 20th century, most authorities agree that realistic limits are already being reached. Complicating issues for policymakers today is the paradoxical nature of population growth, with many wealthy nations experienced negative population growth while a number of impoverished developing nations are experiencing explosive population growth, placing even heavier demands on already scant resources. To determine how the issues of overpopulation, consumption, and resource depletion relate to wealthy nations and developing nations and how can these issues be addressed, this paper provides a review of the relevant literature, followed by a summary of the research and important findings in the conclusion.

There are several contributing factors associated will the population growth rate, and poverty. The first step in slowing the population growth is to start to eliminate poverty. One way of reducing poverty would be to improve the standard of living of

High birth rates contribute to overpopulation in many developing countries. Children are assets to many poor families because they provide labor, usually for farming. Also, the governments of developing countries often provide little or no support, financial or political, for family planning, even people who want to keep their families small have difficulty doing so. For all these reasons, developing countries tend to have high rates of population growth.

Demography is the study of the components of population variation and change. Death rate and birth rate are two determinants of population change. Theory of Demographic Transition is comparatively recent theory that has been accepted by several scholars throughout the world. This theory embraces the observation that all countries in the world go through different stages in the growth of population. A nation's economy and level of development is directly related to that nation's birth and death rates. Population history can be divided into different stages. Some of the scholars have divided it into three and some scholars have divided it into five stages. These stages or classifications demonstrate a

Sustainable development suggests the implementation of state-imposed limitations, with the purpose of reducing the amount of resources and space we overtake and ultimately, the amount of damage we cause to our planet’s future. It requires that we view the earth as a system that both contains space and connects time. We are all interconnected, and the selfish, wasteful lifestyle that a country might live in North America can affect people all around the world, presently even. Generally, sustainable development can be separated into sections-two of them being social and environmental. Social sustainability places emphasis on the importance of public policy-making. It requires a political framework that consists of six areas-natural resource management, measurement and assessment, international trade and investment, climate change and energy, economic policy and communication technologies. Environment sustainability is concerned with the diversity and productivity of natural environments, and requires our generation to innovate activities so that they cause minimal harm to our natural environments. Our future on this earth will directly depend on our ability to introduce and implement the sustainable development techniques discussed in these fundamental sectors.

Population growth is vital for the world to grow, no pun intended, but for it to become a better place for everybody and everything. The key to this is not to limit the growth with ‘preventive’ and ‘positive’ checks,” (Hussain pg.101) but to learn to maintain a steady balance with the human population and the environment. The key is to reach “a state of harmony between men and land,” (Leopold, pg. 243) to be able to conserve the land for today and for tomorrow. The way we handle our Earth depends on us, but the way the growth in population continues to grow will be with or without consent of Malthus, society, economy, or positive checks. The issue with

West Africa has the highest infant mortality rate in the world - for every 1000 live births, 70 children die before their first birthday (Wang, 2014). National infant mortality rates vary from 18.8 deaths per 1000 live births in Cape Verde to 89.9 deaths per 1000 live births in Guinea-Bissau. Nonetheless, the leading causes of infant mortality are largely the same across the region: neonatal conditions (26 percent), malaria (21 percent), pneumonia (21 percent), diarrhea (17 percent), measles (6 percent) and HIV/AIDS (4 percent). The “desired children” hypothesis of fertility asserts that high fertility primarily reflects desired number of children (Pritchett, 1994). In this regard, high infant mortality may motivate women to have more children to attain their preferred family size. Thus aside the important population health implications of reducing high infant mortality rates, demographic theory predicts that improved child survival is accompanied by declines in fertility reflecting reduced demand for replacement births to achieve a given target family size. The influence of reduced infant mortality on fertility decline has also been established empirically in a wide range of settings (Barnum, 1988). Declines in infant mortality, falls in fertility rates, and lower average family sizes lead to changes in population age structure and stimulate increased female labor