Lessons > Social Impacts > Step 1
How does the population in a country like Iraq, where the culture promotes larger
families, become stabilized? Predict what the average death rate and the average
birth rate would have to be in order for the Iraqi population to stabilize or achieve
a 0% growth rate by 2050. Record your prediction and then run the simulator with
varying parameters until you find a zero growth rate. Record your findings in the table
and then answer the following:
- How close was your prediction to the actual model parameters that gave you a
0% growth rate? What factors did you use to make your prediction?
- What would Iraq have to do in order to reach a zero growth rate? What kinds of
challenges might the Iraqi government face in trying to implement these measures?
- Faced with mounting population pressure and the resultant drain on natural
resources, many growing populations wish to migrate, and other
dwindling nations import labor. Where are the major sources and
destinations of this population growth differential in the world today? What issues
do the immigrants bring with them?
- What is the expected result of a nation whose population is outstripping
its resources and ability to feed its people, if its people cannot migrate
peaceably?
