Population growth occurs because there are currently three births for every death. In the past, the crude birth rates were only slightly higher than crude death rates, but with improvements in medicine and economic growth, the death rate fell more than birth rates. Much of the world's population growth is occuring in less-developed countries, which are unable to support such growth. The causal effect between poverty and population growth can be looked at in two ways. First, population growth causes poverty as the limited resources are depleted and there are too many people for the available goods, resulting in poverty. The other view is that poverty causes high population growth because lack of education, lack of health care, and lack of a reasonable standard of living cause high population growth. Also, parents believe that having many children will ensure that several of them will survive to take care of them in their old age. Cultures in which children are a form of security encourage high population growth, as children reach reproductive age and have large families. Much of the growth is happening disproportionately in urban areas. Cities are enviromentally harmful because they import many resources for the people that live there, and they export their wastes. They also have an impact on the local and regional meteorology and are centers for social problems such as crime, homelessness, and unemployment to name a few. Cities do offer many amenities such as cultural opportunities, jobs, and education. There are some good enviromental aspects to cities, such as the promotion of efficiency in transportation, housing, utilities: the provision of necessary goods and services; and the accomodation of large numbers of people within a relatively small space. The biggest problem with cities is that people want the benefits of a city while still living in the country. This leads to urban sprawl and suburbia. (Adapted from http://www.preservearticles.com/201103304817. Accessed February 22, 2014) The purpose of the text is to ...

Question

Population growth occurs because there are currently three births for every death. In the past, the crude birth rates were only slightly higher than crude death rates, but with improvements in medicine and economic growth, the death rate fell more than birth rates. Much of the world's population growth is occuring in less-developed countries, which are unable to support such growth. The causal effect between poverty and population growth can be looked at in two ways. First, population growth causes poverty as the limited resources are depleted and there are too many people for the available goods, resulting in poverty. The other view is that poverty causes high population growth because lack of education, lack of health care, and lack of a reasonable standard of living cause high population growth. Also, parents believe that having many children will ensure that several of them will survive to take care of them in their old age. Cultures in which children are a form of security encourage high population growth, as children reach reproductive age and have large families.

Much of the growth is happening disproportionately in urban areas. Cities are enviromentally harmful because they import many resources for the people that live there, and they export their wastes. They also have an impact on the local and regional meteorology and are centers for social problems such as crime, homelessness, and unemployment to name a few. Cities do offer many amenities such as cultural opportunities, jobs, and education. There are some good enviromental aspects to cities, such as the promotion of efficiency in transportation, housing, utilities: the provision of necessary goods and services; and the accomodation of large numbers of people within a relatively small space. The biggest problem with cities is that people want the benefits of a city while still living in the country. This leads to urban sprawl and suburbia.

(Adapted from http://www.preservearticles.com/201103304817. Accessed February 22, 2014)

The purpose of the text is to ...