Posted: June 1st, 2016

Use the Internet to find an environmentally related problem that is happening in your area.

Question 2: Environmental Problems
Use the Internet to find an environmentally related problem that is happening in your area. Present information about the history behind this problem including what factors led to its occurring and who might be responsible for it. Share what is being done to solve the problem and how effective those efforts are. Present ideas for how you might have handled the situation in the first place to prevent the problem or what you might do now to help solve it. Be prepared to discuss the classes of environmental problems that seem to be widespread and recurring across our country and the world.
Rapid Growth Model
The rapid growth model resembles a pyramid in shape. The largest portion of the population is in the pre-reproductive age class. What happens as these youngsters reach reproductive age? Of course, they will begin to have offspring. Increased people production affects the age structure; the base and subsequent age classes become wider and wider, representing more individuals in the population.
We see this occurring in countries such as Kenya because the culture has not caught up with technological advances. Not long ago, a family would have ten kids with hopes that three or four would survive to work on the family farm (these societies are based on agriculture). With the introduction of cleaner water, sewage treatment, better nutrition, and medical care, eight or ten children could survive. The catch: the cultural belief is that a couple needs ten children to get three or four!
This is the cultural equivalent of the spike in a population—the carrying capacity has been met in the logistic growth model. The area can support this type of rapid increase for only a certain amount of time before something “gives.”
low Growth Model
In the slow growth model, you find the largest proportion of the population in the primary reproductive age class. The model’s age structure shape is similar to one of those old glass Coke® bottles you can still find as a gift around Christmastime. It tapers from the base, widens at the middle, then narrows again as it reaches the mouth of the bottle.