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Our Environment
Published in Karlheinz Spitz, John Trudinger, Mining and the Environment, 2019
Karlheinz Spitz, John Trudinger
People in most developing countries continue to have large families, because parenthood elevates their status and large numbers of children are economic assets. The implications of these different growth rates can be illustrated using population pyramids, graphic representations of a population divided into age and sex classes. Industrialization is the primary factor influencing growth rate. In every country that industrializes, the growth rate declines and the standard of living, including life expectancy, improves. The primary problems of uncontrolled growth, sometimes associated with mining projects, are the development of pockets of poverty, environmental decay, and a decline in the quality of life for some people. To be truly successful, managing growth needs to follow three guiding principles: scale (regional and local planning), livability (respect of human needs), and social justice (how growth affects people). The social management plan for a mining project must reflect these three principles.
The Rise of the Smart City
Published in Rocky Dr. Termanini, The Nano Age of Digital Immunity Infrastructure Fundamentals and Applications, 2018
We do not consider that these statistics are very comforting or static, while the population of the world is ballooning by 80 million per year. Overpopulation is an undesirable condition where the existing human population exceeds the carrying capacity of Earth. Overpopulation is caused by a number of factors: reduced mortality rate, better medical facilities, preventive medicine, more support to overcome poverty, lack of family planning, and the depletion of precious resources. Conflicts over water are becoming a source of tension between countries, which could result in wars. Such conflicts cause more diseases to spread and make them harder to control. Starvation is a huge issue facing the world and the mortality rate for children is being fueled by it. Poverty is the biggest hallmark when we talk about overpopulation. Let’s not forget global warming and Arctic melting and how these directly impact the habitat of human beings. The Arctic sea ice could potentially harm human beings by reducing certain animal habitats that are used for subsistence.
Mega-urbanisation on the coast
Published in Mark Pelling, Sophie Blackburn, Megacities and the Coast, 2014
Sophie Blackburn, Marques César
At a global scale, the urban transition — a shift from a predominantly rural population to a predominantly urban population — has been accompanied by a demographic transition — a shift from high birth and death rates, to low birth and death rates (de Sherbinin and Martine 2007). Although the reasons for this are contested, this is thought to be due in part to improved employment opportunities for women and the elevated cost of living in the city, which both reduce fertility, and improved access (typically, although not always) to medical services, which reduces mortality and improves access to family planning (Caldwell 2005, de Sherbinin and Martine 2007). Also at the global scale, this urban metamorphosis has accompanied a transformation of society, culture, politics, economics and environmental management (de Sherbinin and Martine 2007). However, as outlined below, these associations are neither inherent nor universal.
Sustainability assessment in residential high-rise building design: state of the art
Published in Architectural Engineering and Design Management, 2022
Bahareh Maleki, Maria del Mar Casanovas-Rubio, Albert de la Fuente Antequera
Sustainable development has been one of the most important issues of recent decades, particularly in terms of environmental, economic and social aspects (Hák, Janoušková, & Moldan, 2016). Sustainable development involves providing solutions for physical, social and economic patterns that have emerged due to rising population growth. In addition, interference with land ecosystems, and consequent damage such as degradation and destructive effects on the environment, have raised the need for sustainable development (Strezov, Evans, & Evans, 2017). The concept of sustainable development also makes a fundamental difference in understanding how humans relate to the environment and interact with each other as shown in Figure 1. However, the social aspect of sustainable development received less attention in the past (Brodhag & Taliere, 2006).
Engineering the transition to sustainability
Published in Australian Journal of Multi-Disciplinary Engineering, 2020
The effect of living standards on global population is changing. Over human history rising living standards have increased birth rates and reduced death rates, and have accordingly led to higher population levels. That would indicate a positive relationship between wellbeing and population, and that has been the case in the past (Loop R1). As living standards rise in developing countries the net population growth rate (births minus deaths) is dropping, as it already has in much of the developed world – the so-called demographic transition (Lesthaeghe 2011). This is significantly a function of increasing gender equality, essentially the ability of women to control their own fertility (McNay 2005). Accordingly, in the modern era, the relationship between population and wellbeing is reversed – higher living standards will tend to reduce population, hence the negative sign in Loop B3.
Trends in science, technology, and innovation in the agri-food sector
Published in Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology and Society, 2022
Juan Manuel Vargas-Canales, José de Jesús Brambila-Paz, Verónica Pérez-Cerecedo, María Magdalena Rojas-Rojas, María del Carmen López-Reyna, José Miguel Omaña-Silvestre
At present, global demographic trends (population growth, population aging, migration and urbanization) have important implications for economic and social development and for environmental sustainability (United Nations 2019). Rapid population growth and changes in its demands exert strong pressure on all agri-food systems. In other words, it is necessary to produce more food, food with specific characteristics, to be more efficient in the use of natural resources and inputs, and to conserve the environment. In this sense, the only way to produce them, in sustainable agri-food systems, is with the development of science, technology, innovation, paired with vast political will (Godfray, Beddington, et al. 2010; Godfray, Crute, et al. 2010; Vargas-Canales et al. 2020).