Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Contradictions
Some areas of the world with low population growth
rates (Fig. 2.9) are in the very heart of the Roman Cath-
olic world. Roman Catholic doctrine opposes birth
control and abortion. Adherence to this doctrine
appears to be stronger in areas remote from the Vatican
(headquarters of the Catholic Church). For example,
the Philippines, thousands of miles from the Vatican, is
Asia's only Roman Catholic country. The Church and
the Philippine State agree on abortion, as the Philip-
pine constitution prohibits abortion. However, on the
issue of artifi cial contraceptives, which the still power-
ful Church opposes, the Philippine government dis-
agrees with the Catholic Church. Instead, the
Philippine government supports birth control in order
to stem population growth.
Among Islamic countries, the geographic pattern
is the opposite. Saudi Arabia, home to Mecca—the
hearth of Islam—has one of the world's fastest popula-
tion growth rates (2.7 percent). But in Indonesia, thou-
sands of miles from Mecca and near the Philippines,
the government began a nationwide family planning
program in 1970. When fundamentalist Muslim lead-
ers objected, the government used a combination of
coercion and inducement to negate their infl uence. By
2000, Indonesia's family planning program had lowered
the growth rate to 1.6 percent, and today it stands at 1.4
percent.
When studying government policies on population, one of
the most important things to remember is unintended conse-
quences. Choose one country in the world where women have
little access to education and are disempowered. Consider
the previous section of this chapter on age composition, and
determine how restrictive population policies in this country
would alter the population composition of the country.
Summary
In the late 1700s, Thomas Malthus sounded warning bells about the rapidly growing
population in Great Britain. He feared a massive famine would soon “check” the grow-
ing population, bringing widespread suffering. Although the famine in Great Britain
did not take place as he predicted, the rapidly growing worldwide population made
many more follow Malthus's trajectory, issuing similar warnings about the population
explosion over the last two centuries.
The growth rate of the world population has certainly slowed, but human suffer-
ing is not over yet. Dozens of countries still face high death rates and high birth rates.
Even in countries where the death rate is low, slowed population growth is often a result
of horrid sanitary and medical conditions that lead to high infant and child mortality,
diseases such as AIDS that ravage the population and orphan the young, or famines that
governments deny and that global organizations cannot ameliorate.
Population pyramids illustrate that as wealthier countries worry about support-
ing their aging populations, poorer countries have problems of their own. A high birth
rate in a poor country does not necessarily mean overpopulation—some of the highest
population densities in the world are found in wealthy countries. Even poor countries
that have lowered their birth rates and their death rates are constantly negotiating what
is morally acceptable to their people and their cultures.
Geography offers much to the study of population. Through geography we can
see differences in population problems across space, how what happens at one scale
affects what goes on at other scales, and how different cultures and countries approach
population questions.
