Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
salinization, overgrazing, and deforestation. In addi-
tion, more than two-thirds of its water is seriously pol-
luted and sanitation services often are inadequate.
India's huge and growing middle class is larger
than the entire U.S. population. As these members of
the middle class increase their resource use per person,
India's ecological footprint will expand and increase
the pressure on the country's and the earth's natural
capital.
Without its long-standing family planning pro-
gram, India's population and environmental problems
would be growing even faster. Still, to its supporters
the results of the program have proved disappointing
for several reasons: poor planning, bureaucratic ineffi-
ciency, the low status of women (despite constitutional
guarantees of equality), extreme poverty, and lack of
administrative and financial support.
The government has provided information about
the advantages of small families for years. Even so,
Indian women have an average of 3.0 children. Most
poor couples still believe they need many children to
do work and care for them in old age. The country's
strong cultural preference for male children also means
some couples keep having children until they produce
one or more boys. The result: Even though 90% of
Indian couples know of at least one modern birth con-
trol method, only 43% actually use one.
In China (as in India), there is a strong preference
for male children because of the lack of a real social se-
curity system. A folk saying goes, “Rear a son, and pro-
tect yourself in old age.” Many pregnant women use
ultrasound to determine the gender of their fetus and
often get an abortion if it is female. The result: a grow-
ing gender imbalance in China's population, with a pro-
jected 30-40 million surplus of men expected by 2020.
China has 20% of the world's population, but only
7% of the world's fresh water and cropland, 4% of its
forests, and 2% of its oil. Soil erosion in China is seri-
ous and apparently getting worse.
Population experts expect China's population to
peak around 2040, then begin a slow decline. This pro-
jection has led some members of China's parliament to
call for amending the country's one-child policy so
that some urban couples can have a second child. The
goal would be to provide more workers to help sup-
port China's aging population.
China's economy is growing at one of the world's
highest rates as the country undergoes rapid industri-
alization. Its burgeoning middle class will consume
more resources per person, increase China's ecological
footprint, and increase the strain on the country's and
the earth's natural capital.
What lesson can other countries learn from China?
They should try to curb population growth before they
must choose between mass starvation and coercive
measures that severely restrict human freedom.
Case Study: China
Since 1970, China has used a government-enforced
program to cut its birth rate in half and sharply reduce
its fertility rate.
Since 1970, China has made impressive efforts to feed
its people and bring its population growth under con-
trol. Between 1972 and 2005, the country cut its crude
birth rate in half and trimmed its TFR from 5.7 to 1.6
children per woman (see Figure 7-12).
To achieve its sharp drop in fertility, China has es-
tablished the world's most extensive, intrusive, and
strict population control program. Couples are
strongly urged to postpone marriage and to have no
more than one child. Married couples who pledge to
have no more than one child receive extra food, larger
pensions, better housing, free medical care, salary
bonuses, free school tuition for their child, and prefer-
ential treatment in employment when their child en-
ters the job market. Couples who break their pledge
lose such benefits.
The government also provides married couples
with ready access to free sterilization, contraceptives,
and abortion. As a consequence, 86% of married women
in China use modern contraception. In the 1960s, gov-
ernment officials realized that the only alternative to
strict population control was mass starvation.
7-5 POPULATION DISTRIBUTION:
URBANIZATION AND URBAN
GROWTH
Factors Affecting Urban Growth: Moving
to the City
Urban populations are growing rapidly throughout
the world, and many cities in developing countries
have become centers of poverty.
Almost half of the world's people live in densely popu-
lated urban areas. Rural people are pulled to urban areas
in search of jobs, food, housing, a better life, entertain-
ment, and freedom from religious, racial, and political
conflicts. Some are also pushed from rural areas into ur-
ban areas by factors such as poverty, lack of land to
grow food, declining agricultural jobs, famine, and war.
Five major trends are important in understanding
the problems and challenges of urban growth. First,
the proportion of the global population living in urban areas
is increasing. Between 1850 and 2005, the percentage of
people living in urban areas increased from 2% to 48%.
According to UN projections, 60% of the world's peo-
ple will live in urban areas by 2030. Thus, between
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