population

Learning Goals

This weeks tutorial is designed to equip you with the following:

• Understand key Population concepts from Demography and Ecology, and how they manifest in Australia. Some of these concepts include Natural Increase, Total Fertility Rate, Migration, Life Expectancy and Carrying Capacity.
  

• Explore the implications of Population on Sustainability – this involves an understanding of the complexity of environmental constraints and impacts, social capacity and economic policy.
  

• Present informed and well reasoned arguments to justify a population size that you feel is sustainable for Australia.

Preparation Instructions

Following on from our earlier tutorial on individual and institutional footprints, we will think discuss the impact of population on sustainability by thinking about the maximum population that a country such as Australia can sustainably support, reflecting on the resources that students think affect the population limit they proposed. It is expected that following the completion of this tutorial, students will have a deeper appreciation of the complex policy, and ecological issues that are inherent to a discussion on sustainable population limits or restrictions.

reading

• Burnely, I.H. 2003 Population and Environment in Australia: issues in the next half century, Australian Geographer Vol 34 No 3 pp 267-280 Nov 2003

for your one page

Come to the tutorial with a one-page summary with:

1. your estimate of what population you think Australia can sustainably support.
2. Briefly substantiate your figure by listing in order of importance the most significant resources that limit the population that this country can sustainably support, or increase capacity for work.
3. Bringing together arguments from the reading and the panel discussion, discuss and defend your opinion on the sustainable population figure and your list of the priority resources.