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BTN: World population explosion, 1996

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Large crowd of people in African nation
BTN: World population explosion, 1996

SUBJECTS:  Geography

YEARS:  5–6, 7–8


The growth of the world's population and the pressure this places on resources and the environment is a highly debated topic.

Watch this clip from 1996 to find out about the trends and concerns associated with population growth at that time, and consider how perspectives and patterns may differ today.


Things to think about

  1. 1.Across the world, do you think more people live in cities or in rural areas? Urbanisation is the movement of people from rural areas to live in cities. Why might people move to cities? Do you know the size of the world's current population? What are some issues of a growing world population?
  2. 2.The narrator describes Australia as growing fairly slowly. What does he say about the growth in developing countries? Urban areas are growing fastest, leading to the creation of 'mega cities'. How does the population of a mega city compare to Australia's total population? What are some consequences of the growth of these mega cities? What has one Brazilian city done to manage environmental impacts?
  3. 3.What are the main concerns raised in this clip about world population growth and urbanisation? Do you think these concerns are still relevant today? Why or why not? Urbanisation is described in the clip as having an impact on society and the environment. How might urbanisation and the growth of mega cities affect the liveability of places?
  4. 4.Find out what proportion of today's population live in cities compared with twenty and fifty years ago. Does the data show any differences between developed and developing countries? Collect data on the population growth of an African or Asian country over the past fifty years. Draw a basic graph to show the trend.



Date of broadcast: 11 Jun 1996


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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