POPULATION, CLIMATE CHANGE AND SOCIETY
1| INTRODUCTION
written examen, multiple choice & open questions
- Half earned with questions related to demographic methods
- Half earned with questions about concepts, theories and trends
- One essay question
GOAL OF THE COURSE
gaining knowledge on how the ongoing process of climate change has
been and is still connected with major changes in society
populations are affecting climate change and how they are impacted by
climate change
to gain insights you need:
- concepts and theoretical perspectives
- methods and techniques of observation
DEMOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVE
How are human populations affecting and have been affected by climate change?
= demographic dimension
This depends on how populations are organising themselves across space
and time
= sociological dimension
(the demographic perspective is the major focus in this course)
HUMAN SOCIETY ≠ HUMAN POPULATION
society needs population population needs society
society is not only composed by human beings
- people come and go, but society stays the same
POPULATION PROJECTION
Population projections have been a key contribution to the analysis of climate
change lab weeks
DEMOGRAPHY
= science that analyses:
population size, composition and (geographical) distribution
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, causes and consequences of changes in
- natality (= number of births)
- fertility (=vruchtbaarheid)
- mortality (=death rate)
- migration
• population = collection of humans observed in some time frame and space
transversally = cross-section
longitudinally = over a time
period, evolution
Demografie
= studie van de omvang, structuur en spreiding van de bevolking, en hoe
de bevolking in tijd
Verandert door geboorten, sterfgevallen, migratie en veroudering
Demographers Switch around countries Europe: the population of the largest
country goes to the country with the biggest area…
THE FUNDAMENTAL DEMOGRAPHIC BALANCING EQUATION
= start of everything in demography:
2 ways of entering a population:
- born into it
- in-migration
social mobility = migration that includes a change in the
social label
2 ways of leaving a population:
- Death
- Out-migration
N(T) population (number of people alive in the population at time
T)
N(0) number of people alive in the population at time 0
B[0,T] number of births in the population between time 0 and time T
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, D[0,T] number of deaths between time 0 and T
I[0,T] number of in-migrations between time 0 and T
O[0,T] number of out-migrations between 0 and T
Unit of time = number of years time period in which births, deaths and
migration are occurring is T years
Demographic statistics
= Refer to same two kinds of time perspectives – cross-sectional and longitundal
STOCK STATISTICS: size and composition at time T
- N(T) = N(0)
FLOW STATISTICS: changes in population over a period of time,
demographic processes during a time interval (population movement)
- B[0,T] – D[0,T] natural increase
- I[0,T] – O[0,T] net migration
The demographic balancing equation is a relation between stock-
statistics and flow-statistics
LEXIS DIAGRAM !!
Vertical
Direction, elapsed time since the
occurrence of an event:
if the event is birth, than the vertical
axes is age
- age of graduation
- age of marriage
- age of giving birth
horizontal
years (time), as time goes on
Children born in 1990 who died at the age of 1?
- B = false none of b occurs to people who have celebrated their first
birthday, they have died at the age of 1
- C = correct, they reach 1 (life line, 45°)
Children whose parents got divorced in 1990 while the were 2 years old?
- A = correct, event happens in 1990 while they are 2 years old
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, 2| THE WORLD POPULATION EXPLOSION: CAUSES, CONTEXT AND FUTURE
PROSPECTS
human growth population in number
today: 8 billion people
DEMOGRAPHIC BALANCING EQUATION
= the relation between STOCK-statistics & FLOW (or population movement, or
population change)
Mostly expressed “per capita”
The balancing equation of population change breaks down the changes in the
size of population into four flows
each flow = sum of events occurring to individuals
DEMOGRAPHIC RATES
demographic rates are typically: occurrence/exposure rates
occurence
RATE= the risk of occurrence /exposure ¿
person− years of exposure ¿
occurrence: numbers of events (e.g. number of
births)
exposure: events (e.g. who is at risk, who is exposed
to the event)
the frequency of occurrences = higher in larger populations
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