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population pressures > glossary
http://www.counttheworld.com/
GlossaryAbortion Rate: The number of abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44 or 15-49 in a given year.
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Advanced industrial societies: Nations such as Japan and those of Europe and North America whose economies are based on industrial manufacturing and the use of fossil fuels. While virtually all nations have developed an industrial base to some extent, the advanced nations dominate the world economy in both their use of resources and in the total value of their economic activity.
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Age-Dependency Ratio: The ratio of persons in the ages defined as dependent (under 15 years and over 64 years) to persons in the ages defined as economically productive (15-64 years) in a population.
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Ageing of Population: A process in which the proportions of adults and elderly increase in a population, while the proportions of children and adolescents decrease. This process results in a rise in the median age of the population. Ageing occurs when fertility rates decline while life expectancy remains constant or improves at the older ages.
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Birth Rate (or crude birth rate): The number of live births per 1,000 population in a given year. Not to be confused with population growth rate.
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Carrying Capacity: The maximum sustainable size of a resident population in a given ecosystem.
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CFC�s (Chlorofluorocarbons): A group of chemicals containing chlorine (Cl), fluorine (F) and carbon (C), sometimes referred to by their trade name Freon. These synthetic compounds were used extensively for refrigeration and aerosol sprays until it was realized that they destroy ozone (they are also very powerful greenhouse gases) and have a very long lifetime once in the atmosphere (more than 100 years). The Montreal Protocol agreement of 1987 has resulted in the scaling down of CFC production and use in industrialised countries.
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Child mortality rate: The number of deaths among children under 5 years old per 1,000 children in the same age group.
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Cholera: A bacterial disease caused by drinking water contaminated by sewage or eating food that has not been washed or is inadequately cooked. It is common in areas where the growth in population has outstripped the development of facilities for providing clean water or disposing of sewage. The problem is most severe in warm climates where high temperatures encourage the growth of the cholera bacteria.
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Conservation (nature): Protection against irreversible destruction and other undesirable changes, including the management of human use of organisms or ecosystems to ensure such use is sustainable.
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Contraceptive Prevalence Rate: Percentage of couples currently using a contraceptive method.
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Dependency Ratio: The ratio of the economically dependent part of the population to the productive part; arbitrarily defined as the ratio of the elderly (ages 65 and older) plus the young (under age 15) to the population in the working ages (ages 15-64).
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Developed countries/nations/world: See the West.
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Developing countries/nations/world: The world's less wealthy nations, mostly former colonies: ie most of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the South Pacific. Also sometimes referred to as the South.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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Development: A process of economic and social transformation that defies simple definition. Though often viewed as a strictly economic process involving growth and diversification of a country's economy, development is a qualitative concept that entails complex social, cultural, and environmental changes. There are many models of what 'development' should look like and many different standards of what constitutes 'success'.
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Eco-efficiency: The ability of an economic entity to generate great economic value from fewer resources.
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Ecology: Originally defined by Ernst Haeckel in 1866, ecology is the study of the relationships that develop among living organisms and between these organisms and the environment.
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Economic growth: The change over a period of time in the value (monetary and non-monetary) of goods and services and the ability and capacity to produce goods and services. It is economic growth which generates the wealth necessary to provide social services, health care, and education. It is the basis for ongoing job creation. However, sustainable development requires that there be a change in the nature of economic growth, to ensure that goods and services are produced by environmentally sound and economically sustainable processes. This will require efficient use of resources, value-added processing, sustained yield management of renewable resources, and the consideration and accounting of all externalities and side-effects involved in the extraction, processing, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal of those goods.
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Economically sustainable: The characteristic of prolonged, careful, efficient, and prudent (wise and judicious) use of resources (natural, fiscal, human), products, facilities, and services. It is based on thorough knowledge and involves operating with little waste and accounting for all costs and benefits, including those which are not marketable and can result in savings.
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Economy: What human beings do. The activity of managing resources and producing, distributing, and consuming goods and services.
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Environment: A combination of the various physical and biological elements that affect the life of an organism. Although it is common to refer to �the� environment, there are in fact many environments eg, aquatic or terrestrial, microscopic to global, all capable of change in time and place, but all intimately linked and in combination constituting the whole earth/atmosphere system.
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Environmental pollution: The contamination of the physical and biological components of the earth/atmosphere system to such an extent that normal environmental processes are adversely affected.
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Environmentally-sound: The maintenance of a healthy environment and the protection of life-sustaining ecological processes. It is based on thorough knowledge and requires or will result in products, manufacturing processes, developments, etc. which are in harmony with essential ecological processes and human health.
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Fair trade: Equitable, non-exploitative trade between developing world suppliers and Western consumers.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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Fertility: The actual reproductive performance of an individual, a couple, a group, or a population.
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Food deficit: A shortage of foodstuffs in relation to the recommended food needed.
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Food security: Access to sufficient nutritious food at all times.
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Food surplus: A surplus of foodstuffs in relation to the recommended food needed.
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Free trade: The movement of goods, capital, services, or people across borders, free from government interventions such as tariffs and quota restrictions.
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Global warming: The idea that increased greenhouse gases cause the Earth�s temperature to rise globally.
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Globalisation: The complex network of links between countries and societies in the modern world. The processes (for example in trade, travel, media, and communication and information systems) through which decisions and events in one part of the world can come to have significant consequences for people and communities in other parts of the world.
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GM foods: Foodstuffs that have had their genes changed (genetically modified - GM) in order to improve their productivity.
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GNP and GDP: GNP is the total value of all goods and services produced by a country in a specified period (usually annually). Gross domestic product (GDP) GDP is calculated as GNP less income from foreign investments.
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Greenhouse effect: The cause of global warming. Incoming solar radiation is transmitted by the atmosphere to the Earth�s surface, which it warms. The energy is retransmitted as thermal radiation, but some of it is absorbed by molecules of greenhouse gases instead of being retransmitted out to space, causing the temperature of the atmosphere to rise. The name comes from the ability of greenhouse glass to transmit incoming solar radiation but retain some of the outgoing thermal radiation to warm the interior of the greenhouse. The �natural� greenhouse effect is due to the greenhouse gases present for natural reasons, and is also observed for the neighbouring planets in the solar system. The �enhanced� greenhouse effect is the added effect caused by the greenhouse gases present in the atmosphere due to human activities, such as burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.
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Greenhouse gases: Molecules in the Earth�s atmosphere such a carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and CFCs which warm the atmosphere because they absorb some of the thermal radiation emitted from the earth's surface.
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High-risk pregnancies: Pregnancies occurring under the following conditions: too closely spaces, too frequent, mother too young or too old, or accompanied by such high-risk factors as high blood pressure or diabetes.
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HIV: Human immunodeficiency virus � the cause of AIDS.
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Industrial revolution: A historical transition that began in England in the eighteenth century, when the use of coal both in steam engines and for iron smelting enormously increased industrial output. Industrial technologies and the use of fossil fuels quickly spread to other nations, generated unprecedented industrial growth, and changed fundamentally the human use of resources and impact on the local and global environment.
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Industrialization: A development path based on expanding a country's capacity to process raw materials and manufacture products for consumers, businesses, and export. This approach to development, first seen in northern Europe in the Industrial Revolution typically entails heavy financial investment in factories and power plants and a rapidly growing demand for energy, particularly fossil fuels.
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Infant Mortality Rate: The number of deaths of infants under age 1 per 1,000 live births in a given year.
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International Monetary Fund (IMF): The IMF was founded in 1944 at an inter-governmental conference held in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, USA, in order to promote economic stability after the Second World War. It has 183 members (as at April 2002), and is managed by a Board of Governors which meets once each year at the Annual Meeting. It has three main functions: 'surveillance', or monitoring of its members' economic policies; financial assistance, through which credits and loans are extended to member countries; and technical assistance, in areas such as monetary policy, data collection, or training.
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Life expectancy: The average number of additional years a person could expect to live if current mortality trends were to continue for the rest of that person's life. Commonly cited as life expectancy at birth, or average life expectancy at birth for whole populations .
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Maternal Mortality Rate: The number of women who die as a result of pregnancy and childbirth complications per 100,000 live births in a given year.
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Millennium Development Goals: At the UN Millennium Summit in 2000, 191 countries committed themselves to halving poverty by the year 2015 and meeting a range of other targets in areas such as health, education, and gender equity.
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Mitigation: Techniques or requirements (e.g., conditions of development approval) aimed at reducing or neutralising identified negative environmental, economic, or social effects of a proposed activity, policy, or development.
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Morbidity: Rate of occurrence of disease or other health disorder within a population, taking account of the age specific morbidity rates. Health outcomes include: chronic disease incidence/prevalence, rates of hospitalisation, primary care consultations, disability-days (e.g. days when absent from work), and prevalence of symptoms.
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Multinational corporation: See transnational corporation.
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National conservation strategies: Plans that highlight country-level environmental priorities and opportunities for sustainable management of natural resources, following the example of the World Conservation Strategy published by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) in 1980. Though governments may support preparation for the strategies, they are not bound to follow IUCN's recommendations.
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Newly industrialized countries: A category including several Southeast Asian nations (South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Malaysia) that have achieved high rates of economic growth in recent years by attracting manufacturing and assembly plants for the automotive, electronics, and other industries. These industries have benefited from relatively educated workers, low wage levels, various sorts of government incentives, and generally lax environmental regulations.
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North, the: See the West.
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Ozone hole: A region of the atmosphere over Antarctica where, during spring in the southern hemisphere, about half the atmospheric ozone disappears. The Ozone layer protects the earth�s surface from the effects of excess ultraviolet radiation. However, the growth in the volume and use of ozone-destroying chemicals, such as CFCs, has depleted the layer, allowing greater amounts of ultraviolet radiation to pass through to the earth�s surface, raising fears of the increased occurrence of skin cancer, eye damage and genetic mutation in terrestrial organisms. (Recently scientists have decreases of 10-20 per cent in ozone over the Arctic).
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Population Growth Rate: The number of persons added to (or subtracted from) a population in a year due to natural increase and net migration expressed as a percentage of the population at the beginning of the time period.
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Population health: A measure of health status of populations, proposed in recent years to selectively replace use of the terms human health, which is more restrictive, and public health, which also encompasses preventive and curative measures and infrastructures.
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Population Momentum: The tendency for population growth to continue beyond the time that replacement-level fertility has been achieved because of the relatively high concentration of people in the childbearing years.
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Population Projection: Computation of future changes in population numbers, given certain assumptions about future trends in the rates of fertility, mortality, and migration. Demographers often issue low, medium, and high projections of the same population, based on different assumptions of how these rates will change in the future.
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Primary Health Care: Essential health care which at the very least should include: education of the community regarding prevalent health problems and means of alleviating or preventing these; the promotion of adequate supplies of food and proper nutrition; basic sanitation and adequate safe water; maternal and child health care including family planning; the prevention and control of locally-endemic diseases; immunisation against the main infectious diseases; appropriate treatment of common diseases and injuries; and the provision of essential drugs.
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Proper resource pricing: The pricing of natural resources at levels which reflect their combined economic and environmental values.
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Rate of Natural Increase (or Decrease): The rate at which a population is increasing (or decreasing) in a given year due to a surplus (or deficit) of births over deaths, expressed as a percentage of the base population.
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Replacement-Level Fertility: The level of fertility at which a couple has only enough children to replace themselves, or about two children per couple.
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Reproductive Health: Reproductive health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, in all matters relating to the reproductive system and to its functions and processes.
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Sex Ratio: The number of males per 100 females in a population.
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Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs): Any infection transmitted by sexual intercourse. The most common STIs are gonorrhoea, chlamydia, herpes and AIDS.
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South, the: See developing countries.
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Structural adjustment policies: Structural Adjustment Policies are economic policies which countries must follow in order to qualify for new World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans and help them make debt repayments on the older debts owed to commercial banks, governments and the World Bank. SAPs are designed for individual countries but have common guiding principles and features which include export-led growth; privatisation and liberalisation; and the efficiency of the free market. SAPs generally require countries to devalue their currencies against the dollar; lift import and export restrictions; balance their budgets and not overspend; and remove price controls and state subsidies. Often SAPs result in cuts in public sector spending in areas such as education, health and social care.
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Sustainable development: Sustainable development has as many definitions as subscribers. In essence, it refers to economic development that meets the needs of all without leaving future generations with fewer natural resources than those we enjoy today. It is widely accepted that achieving sustainable development requires balance between three dimensions of complementary change:
- Economic (towards sustainable patterns of production and consumption)
- Ecological (towards maintenance and restoration of healthy ecosystems)
- Social (towards poverty eradication and sustainable livelihoods)
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Third World, the: Now generally referred to as either developing countries or the South.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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Total Fertility Rate (TFR): The average number of children that would be born alive to a woman (or group of women) during her lifetime if she were to pass through her childbearing years conforming to the age-specific fertility rates of a given year. This rate is sometimes stated as the number of children women are having today.
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Trade liberalisation: Changing trade policies and practices so that the market can operate more 'freely'. It may involve reductions in, or the removal of, tariffs, quotas, subsidies, and other regulations.
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Transnational corporation: Correctly, a large company with shareholders in more than one country. The term is often used more loosely to mean any large, powerful, Western-owned company.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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West, the: The world's rich nations: ie Western Europe, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and (economically, although perhaps not culturally) Japan. Also referred to as the , the .
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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WHO (World Health Organisation): A UN agency created in 1948 to deal with global health issues and to achieve as high a level of physical, mental and social well-being as possible for peoples of the world. It is involved in a variety of environemental studies, including the impact of climate change and ozone depletion on health, in conjunction with other agencies such as the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Program(UNEP).
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World Commission on Environment and Development: Established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1983 to examine international and global environmental problems and to propose strategies for sustainable development. Chaired by Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, the independent commission held meetings and public hearing around the world and submitted a report on its inquiry to the General Assembly in 1987.
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World Food Summit (WFS): World Food Summit, held in 1996, at which governments pledged to halve the number of hungry poeple by 2015.
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World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD): The World Summit on Sustainable Development takes place from 26 August - 4 September 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Governments, UN agencies, and civil society organisations will come together to assess progress since the UN Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio in 1992 (hence the title 'Rio + 10' for the Johannesburg meeting). Sustainable development is defined in the report from the Rio meeting as being 'economic progress which meets all of our needs without leaving future generations with fewer resources than those we enjoy'.
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