Ted Talk Population Pyramid
The overall trend of demographic change is that of an ageing continent. The region with the largest percentage (27%) is Liguria in Italy. The elderly of Europe are also found in greater than normal proportions in northern Germany, and also along the Mediterranean coast and in the interior of France, in northern Spain and southwest England. A lot of these regions are typically attractive for retired people and may also be characterised by low fertility rates. The following map shows the regional distribution of the shares of elderly across Europe displayed on a gridded population cartogram where each of the grid cells is resized to the total number of people living there:
Ted Talk Population Pyramid
Population statistics are like crystal balls -- when examined closely, they can help predict a country's future (and give important clues about the past). Kim Preshoff explains how using a visual tool called a population pyramid helps policymakers and social scientists make sense of the statistics, using three different countries' pyramids as examples.
In this TED-Ed Original lesson, Kim Preshoff explains how using a visual tool called a population pyramid helps policymakers and social scientists make sense of the statistics, using three different countries' pyramids as examples.
I got the idea of building population pyramids out of LEGO from my friend and fellow #worldgeochat moderator Jen Garner (@jmgarner2003 ). I have had students build with LEGO before in class as a closure activity and have had great success. I also am always trying to find new ways to incorporate LEGO into my class since reading Play Like A Pirate by Quinn Rollins (@jedikermit), which is filled with ways to integrate LEGO into your classroom. Jen was kind enough to share the idea and her handout for this lesson with me. Jen teaches AP Human Geography so these directions would be a little too much for my 7th graders who had yet to encounter a population pyramid. I quickly realized that I would need something more accessible for my students to start with.
After my students viewed the TED-Ed video on population pyramids they next were going to create a population pyramid out of LEGOs. I selected 5 different pyramids (China, Bangladesh, India, Japan, and Indonesia) from the CIA World Factbook website, my go to statistics website. I made the images large enough on the page so that students could easily replicate them out of LEGO. As they built the pyramids I circulated around and asked them the questions at the bottom of the handouts. You can see some of the types of questions I asked in the image above.
Student engagement was off the charts for this lesson. Students had the tactile experience of constructing population pyramids, coupled with the immersive experience of the Google Expeditions. This is definitely a lesson that I plan to do again!
Enter the URL of the YouTube video to download subtitles in many different formats and languages.BilSub.com - bilingual subtitles >>> function onSubmit(token) document.getElementById("loadform").submit();Population pyramids: Powerful predictors of the future - Kim Preshoff Complain, DMCA A- A+ close video open video
The traditional depiction of the potential impact of health care interventions is a four-tier pyramid, with the bottom level representing population-wide interventions that have the greatest impact and ascending levels with decreasing impact that represent primary, secondary, and tertiary care.6 Other frameworks more specific to public health have been proposed. Grizzell's 6-tier intervention pyramid emphasizes policy change, environmental enhancement, and community and neighborhood collaboration.7 Hamilton and Bhatti's 3-dimensional population health and health promotion cube incorporates 9 health determinants (e.g., healthy child development, biology and genetics, physical environments, working conditions, and social support networks) and evidence-based actions to address them (e.g., reorienting health services, creating supportive environments, enacting healthy public policy, and strengthening community action).8 The maternal and child health pyramid of health services, developed by the US Health Resources and Services Administration, consists of 4 levels of services used by states to allocate resources for mothers and children.6 Infrastructure building (e.g., monitoring, training, systems of care, and information systems) is at the bottom of the pyramid, followed by population-based services (e.g., newborn screening, immunization, and lead screening) and enabling services (e.g., transportation, translation, case management, and coordination with Medicaid), with direct health care services at the top.
Cardiovascular disease risk factors (e.g., hypertension) are currently addressed at the individual level through screening and medication. But even assuming perfect treatment, this approach fails to prevent almost half of the disease burden caused by elevated blood pressure; cardiovascular risk increases with systolic blood pressure above 115 mm Hg, a level at which medical treatment is not recommended currently.25,26 Changing the environmental context so that individuals can easily take heart-healthy actions in the normal course of their lives can have a greater population impact than clinical interventions that treat individuals.
Although the effectiveness of interventions tends to decrease at higher levels of the pyramid, those at the top often require the least political commitment. Achieving social and economic change might require fundamental societal transformation. Contextual change is often controversial, as evidenced by disputes over smoke-free laws, restrictions on artificial trans fat, and water fluoridation.53,54 One-time interventions tend to be less controversial, although immunization programs that attempt to reach all members of a society often meet resistance arising from suspicion and disbelief.55
Demography then, uses statistics including, but not limited to birth rate, death rate, age, sex, and migration. Additionally they use population density (a measure of the number of people living in a square kilometer) and population distribution (where the population is located).
What do they say to you about the current paradigm that suggests that the earth is overpopulated? Is the earth overpopulated for the resources we have? If you are uncertain at this time, pose two or three questions and explain how they would help clarify your thinking about overpopulation.
Many people believe the earth is overpopulated, but if we look a bit deeper we may find that the earth is, in places, over-crowded, not over-populated. In fact many think that the idea of the world being overpopulated is a dangerous myth. When our global population surpassed the 7 billion mark, it was certainly reason to stop and consider the implications of a population of this size.
View the following three videos. Are your criteria to measure overpopulation used in any of these video clips? If we have sufficient amounts of food, water and shelter, perhaps we are not overpopulated at all? When we perpetuate this world view, we neglect to address other real issues: forced population control, food distribution, human rights abuses and many others.
We can identify some patterns and trends that populations around the world seem to go through. The Demographic Transition Model (DTM) is the most widely used tool that illustrates the typical changes populations have made as they experience economic or industrial development.
Population pyramids are useful because they allow us to compare countries, and help to forecast future trends. For example, in Canada our growing elderly population may mean more retirement and seniors facilities are needed. On the other hand, an increase in younger people, as seen in our Indigenous communities may mean more schools are required.
What most people care about is not represented in the numbers or the maps, but the quality of life that people experience and hopefully enjoy. We can use the population theories, Demographic Transition Model and population pyramids to determine our quality of life and also the impact that population changes have on our natural environment. Really, we can better understand our sustainability through population studies.
Click the picture above to go to the TED talk on how population pyramids predict the future of a country. ALSO CONNECTS TO DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION MODEL, POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY, SOCIOECONOMIC IMPACTS, AND URBANIZATION
Carstensen has found that older people are also more comfortable experiencing sadness and mixed emotions. During her talk, she encourages people of all ages to appreciate and make use of the talents of the growing segment of the population over age 60.
But the reality is more complex, and in many ways more insidious. Although as a whole, Western societies now enjoy unprecedented prosperity, this is a deeply misleading picture of the lived realities of the vast majority of the population.
"The bottom of the pyramid, bottom of the wealth pyramid or the bottom of the income pyramid is the largest, but poorest socio-economic group. In global terms, this is the 2.7 billion people who live on less than $2.50 a day."
The quoted definition above heads the Wikipedia article on "bottom of the pyramid" and the graphic comes from the same article. Wikipedia is never the best or final word on a topic, and is rarely appropriate for actually quoting in your college work. However, it can be a great place to begin to acquire a little background, larger context, keywords and new vocabulary. This article on "BoP" includes some helpful context regarding the shape of the wealth pyramid overall, the fuzziness of really defining the bottom of the pyramid -- the very most impoverished peoples, and relationship of this economic reality to business and business opportunities. The article includes a very substantial number of footnoted sources and suggestions for additional reading. Among those cited sources and references, more substantial and credible sources may be found for your own research and writing.