Why It Matters: Population, Urbanization, and the Environment
Hydraulic fracturing makes it possible to extract gas and oil from shale by drilling the ground and directing chemicals under pressure into the rock. This operation brings environmental costs, pollutes the environment, increases the likelihood of earthquakes, and uses non-renewable natural gas. Working with hydraulic fracturing reduces unemployment and helps economic growth, which benefits this environmental change. The presence of hydraulic fracturing calls into question the relationship between people and the environment and also provides a large area for sociologists to study.
Demography and Population Growth
The earth’s population is growing at an incredible rate, which is significantly influenced by three main factors: fertility, mortality, and migration. Fertility indicators measure fertility, the mortality rate shows how many people have died, and the difference between these indicators shows an increase in the number of people. The coefficients of migration, immigration, and emigration show the movements of people, which also change the number of people living in a particular territory. Fertility, mortality, and migration show the general composition of the population.
Demographic Theories
Demographic problems have become the basis for understanding human relations. Subsequently, this gave rise to four theories about population, such as the Malthusian, the cornucopia theory, demographic transition, and zero growth. Thomas Malthus became the founder of the Malthusian idea that the planet provides a certain number of people with resources. If the population outgrows, then some people die of hunger; thereby, the number of people becomes correct again. Naturally, this theory was not entirely accurate since people invented the ability to grow food on their own, discovered medicine, and, at the expense of contraceptives, reduced population growth.
Paul Ehrlich, who founded the theory of zero population growth, concluded that people pollute nature, eventually leading to collapse. The approach is based on the fact that the number of people will be equalized through birth and death, immigration, and leaving the country. The Cornucopia theory is based on people’s ability to solve environmental and social problems through their inventions. For example, if people need to have more food, they will be able to grow food. The theory of demographic transition is that population growth will consist of four stages: life expectancy is low, fertility is high, and mortality is low. The third stage is characterized by low fertility and mortality, increasing life expectancy. The fourth stage is a long-life expectancy; mortality and fertility rates are low. Such an indicator as migration should also be under the control of countries since it directly affects the number of people living in a particular territory.
Urbanization on the Rise
Urbanization studies political, economic, and social relations in cities. For cities to develop, it is necessary to comply with three essential prerequisites, such as fresh water and a favorable climate, advanced technologies that will produce a large amount of food, and a social organization that allows for social stability. Urbanization in the United States was preceded by an increase in the number of factories and the movement of people from poor areas of the country to more affluent ones. These areas became overpopulated, and people moved back to the cities. Such a situation has been spread worldwide, which eventually leads to such a development in which the reserves of nature are depleted, and the environment is damaged.
Theoretical Perspectives on Urbanization
One of the leading roles in sociology is played by the problems of urbanization, which simultaneously focus on the protection of ecology and political economy. In the USA, people move using highways, while more attention is paid to public transport in European countries. People need to invent such a way of moving not to disturb the natural ecological environment. There is a model of the concentric zone, which is a model of human ecology divided into zones. Zone A is located in the city center and is the center of the cultural and business district; zone B includes former houses for the rich, divided into small apartments for new immigrants; zone C is designated for the working class, and zone D for the rich. The development of cities depends on the structure and agencies that determine the purpose of land use.
Environmental Sociology
One of the directions of ecological sociology is the interaction of people with the environment. So, climate change can occur due to carbon dioxide emissions that appear due to human activities. Global warming can lead to climate change and people’s intensified search for solutions to this problem. Also, human activity leads to the contamination of water and soil and violates people’s natural habitat. Polluted water leads to the death of people as the amount of clean drinking water is increasingly reduced. Soil pollution leads to desertification and erosion, which reduces yields and leads to starvation and the death of people and animals. The growing number of people affects the growth of factories, polluting the air and increasing the load on the atmosphere.
Environmental Racism
Environmental racism consists of the fact that some minorities are forced to live in danger due to toxic waste, garbage, and various sources of environmental pollution. This harms people’s health and the environment they live and work. African American children and adults are exposed to such effects, which may be poisoned with lead and forced to live in disadvantaged areas with a polluted environment. Environmental racism arises because well-off people can afford to live in areas with favorable climates, unlike poor people. Because large companies allow themselves to build their factories near residential areas and disrupt the healthy living environment of people.