Name: Yuzhu Gong Due Date: 2015/11/08
Article Title: Population, Poverty & The Local Environment
Author/Source: Scientific American
Article Title: Population, Poverty & The Local Environment
Author/Source: Scientific American
A: List major ideas, concepts or key points - point by point
- Some would point to population growth as the cause of poverty and environmental degradation.
- Others would permute the elements of this causal chain, arguing, for example, that poverty is the cause rather than the consequence of increasing numbers.
- Population growth, poverty and degradation of local resources often fuel one another.
- The collected research has shown that none of the three elements directly causes the other two; rather each influences, and is in turn influenced by, the others.
- This new perspective has significant implications for policies aimed at improving life for some of the world’s most impoverished inhabitants.
- In most poor countries, complications related to pregnancy constitute the largest single cause of death of women in their reproductive years.
- Lack of paid employment and education limits a woman’s ability to make decisions and therefore promotes population growth.
- Lack of income-generating employment reduces women’s power more directly than does lack of education.
- In patrilineal societies, educated girls can also be perceived as less pliable and harder to marry off.
- Indeed, the benefits of subsidies to even primary education are reaped disproportionately by families that are better off.
- The importance of gender inequality to overpopulation in poor nations is fortunately gaining international recognition.
- Often there are norms encouraging high fertility rates that no household desires unilaterally to break.
- In a rural economy where avenues for saving are highly restricted, parents value children as a source of security in their old age.
- Communities have protected such local commons against overexploitation by invoking norms, imposing fines for deviant behavior and so forth.
- Social rules are also endangered by civil strife and by the takeover of resources by landowners or the state.
- Parents produce too many children, which leads to greater crowding and susceptibility to disease as well as to more pressure on environmental resources.
- This analysis suggests that the way to reduce fertility is to break the destructive spiral.
- Parental demand for children rather than an unmet need for contraceptives in large measure explains reproductive behavior in developing countries.
- Fertility, as well, is lower in countries where citizens enjoy more civil and political freedom.
- The most potent solution in semiarid regions of sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian subcontinent is to deploy a number of policies simultaneously.
- Family planning services, especially when allied with health services, and measures that empower women are certainly helpful.
- But improving social coordination and directly increasing the economic security of the poor are also essential.
B: Summarize the author's main point or idea
Summary of Author's Main Points:
People have different opinions on population growth, some of them claim that it causes poverty and environmental degradation, others think that poverty causes the increase of human population. In fact, population growth, poverty and degradation of local resources often fuel one another. This new perspective has significant implications for policies aimed at improving life for some of the world’s most impoverished inhabitants. Low education level leads to large population in account of it limits a woman’s ability to make decisions and therefore promotes population growth. Especially, in these countries, folks think that boys are more valuable than girls. Thus, specialists come up with a solution: literacy and employment for women is essential to smooth the transition to having fewer children; improve social coordination and economic security of the poor are also essential.
C: Reaction to the article
My Own Thoughts on the Topic:
This article reflects the most crucial issue all around the world which is overpopulation. The reason why it occurs is because that a lot of women do not have the choice to make decision on the number of children they want to have and addition to that is in developing nations, people usually think that males are more valuable than females since boys are the ones to carry them when they are old. I think women should get some sort high education and have a job, that way these women can make decisions about their desire instead of following others. I am not necessarily a feminist but I do support these women that are independent and want to be independent.
My Own Thoughts on the Topic:
This article reflects the most crucial issue all around the world which is overpopulation. The reason why it occurs is because that a lot of women do not have the choice to make decision on the number of children they want to have and addition to that is in developing nations, people usually think that males are more valuable than females since boys are the ones to carry them when they are old. I think women should get some sort high education and have a job, that way these women can make decisions about their desire instead of following others. I am not necessarily a feminist but I do support these women that are independent and want to be independent.