Turning the Population Tide in the Philippines (January 23, 2012)
Synopsis
While Philippine leaders debate, poor fishing families embrace birth control to ease pressure on over-fished reefs. Part of a new project called Food for 9 Billion that looks at the challenges of feeding the world in a time of social and environmental change, Sam Eaton of Homelands Productions reports.
Source: PBS NewsHour
Length: 10:30
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Watch the video and answer the following questions:
One of the primary ecological concerns addressed in this video is the impact that the quickly growing human population is having on the nearby reef ecosystem in the Philippines.
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Ongoing technological advances in food production will allow the Filipino population to grow indefinitely.
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Religion plays a strong role in many Filipino’s view toward the use of artificial family planning.
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The primary source of protein for the human population of the Philippines is
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A Filipino family interviewed in this video, Jason and Chrisna Bosteros, both came from large families. When asked why they chose to have a relatively small family, they replied that
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What is a consequence of the relatively high birth rates found throughout much of the Philippines?
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Watch the video and answer the following questions:
A speaker in the video explains that the population of the Philippines is already beyond its “carrying capacity”. In chapter 9 of your text, carrying capacity is defined as the population size that can be supported by an environment indefinitely, without long-term damage to the ecosystem. What evidence was presented in this video supporting the claim that the Philippines are beyond their carrying capacity? As it is difficult to assign an exact number to an environment’s carrying capacity, could you present other evidence that the Philippines' population is still under its carrying capacity?
Demographers studying the population growth in the Philippines predict that the country’s population will continue to grow, and likely double. As discussed in your text, what sorts of factors do demographers examine when trying to predict population growth rates? Do you think a population which has a relatively large percentage of 20-30 year olds would grow more quickly or slower than a population with a relatively large percentage of 60-70 year olds? Why?
The fishing community of Humayhumay, Philippines has shown great success in controlling their population growth, and the video made a comparison between the low human birth rates found in that location relative to the much higher rates in other communities within the Philippines. What is this difference in birth rates attributed to?
Unlike some neighboring countries, like Thailand and Indonesia, the Philippines does not have a state sponsored family planning program. Is this because of very high economic costs of implementing such a program, or is there another primary reason? If so, what is it? If as a governmental policy maker your intent was to keep the population at a sustainable level, how would you successfully reduce or remove this impediment?
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