Monday, October 15, 2012

Human carrying capacity and our need for a parachute

Read the article and answer the questions!

1. Give 2 examples of how the human population has 'fallen out of favor'. Give a brief (like 2-5 sentence) explaination.
2. Explain the significance of the joke, “An economist and an ecologist have fallen from a tall building. The ecologist is panicking but the economist remains calm. Don’t worry, she says: “demand will create a parachute." using information from the article.

10 comments:

  1. 1. The population has fallen out of favor because, if we don't all cooperate, we will never be able to sustain this big of a population. Also, with the current problems like rising sea levels, we may instead turn to killing to be able to get what we need rather than cooperating with others to try to fix the problem.

    2. If there is demand for something, it will most likely be made available. This applies to the article, because if we all cooperate, the carrying capacity may not be an issue and we as a race may be able to expand infinitely, as long as it doesn't interfere with getting along.

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  2. 1. The population has fallen out of favor because of the lack of communication and sustainability of the human race. Without proper coordination and communication, the Earth would not be able to sustain the human population due to the fact that economies dont allow for everyone to get sufficient food supply which shows why population has fallen out of favor. Another reason is the stresses that humans put on the planet. With all of the burning of fossil fuels and CO2 emissions, there is damage being done to resources which in the future might not be able to sustain people.

    2. What this joke means is that in an economic standpoint, a lot of demand for something is good and generally is like a "parachute" for the economy and suppliers. But when applied with the information form the article, the ecologist is panicking because if there is a lot of demand for resources, then there would be a shortage because not enough sustainable supplies (resources) would be harvested or created to sustain more demand. This is bad in this case because higher demand for resources comes from a higher population.

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  3. 1. Although the planet still has room for more population, the text suggests that preserving some underused land or carrying capacity is vital for creating population buffers between disparate cultures. Without land buffers, world populations will be more prone to tension and conflict.
    Changing lifestyles could increase the planet's capacity for increased population, but President Bush stated in 1992 that US consumers are either not willing or not able to reduce their consumption. This does not bode well for increasing capacity.

    2. The joke points out that the ecologist anticipated problems based on evidence while the economist focused on a theoretical solution that was terribly flawed. The ecologist recognized that that facing an urgent situation while the economist spoke of a theoretical solution that was not going to save them.

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  4. 1. The population has fallen out of favor because of social and natural capital. Social capital is very important because humans need to communicate and coordinate the ways we can help the planet. One such example is with food and how more developed countries throw out so much food that could help less developed countries. Another factor is natural capital because we are burning too much fossil fuels and using the planet's resources faster than it can reproduce. Eventually our population will be so high that farm land will need to be colonized, decreasing the amount of crops we grow.

    2. This very unpleasant joke is essentially saying that there is so much demand for food and resources from an economical standpoint but there is a shortage of food and resources for everyone from an environmental hippie stand point. Haha.

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  5. The population has fallen out of favor because we are running out of resources. We need to work together to help sustain what we have. Also, because of so many people and the current technology, the co2 emissions are increasing.

    This joke isnt funny, but it is trying to say

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  6. That resourcesdemand outweighs the supply.

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  7. Population has fallen out of favor because we are running out of our natural resources. Another reason would be the pollution that we put into our planet, such as fossil fuels and CO2 may further effect the future in the earths ability to support humans and our growing population.

    2. This joke states that there is too much demand without enough supply

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  8. 1. The population has fallen out of favor because we have limited resources and eventually what is available now won't be in time.

    2. The joke is saying that production all depends on the demand for it.

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  9. 1. The population has "fallen out of favor" because we are extremely dependent on our use of natural resources and eventually, we will run out of them. Also, another reason why we have fallen out of favor is because we use and burn up so many fossil fuels, increasing the amount of pollution in the air.

    2. The joke says that the population has a very high demand of food and resources however in reality, the Earth does not produce as much of a resource as we demand.

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  10. 1- The population has 'fallen out of favor', as we are running out of natural resources and are too dependent on them. Another reason could be he fact that we use and burn too many fuels, creating more CO2 and affecting our future.

    2- The joke is that the population asks for too much, and there won't be enough to supply for it.

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