(a) Explain how each of the following has affected world population: (i) Improved medical care (ii) Advanced technology and industry (b) Highlight four fact...

Answer Details

(a) How each factor has affected world population

(i) Improved medical care: better hospitals, drugs, vaccines, sanitation and maternal/child health services have lowered the death rate, controlled epidemic diseases and raised life expectancy. With births still high in many countries, the fall in deaths has produced rapid population growth (a population explosion).

(ii) Advanced technology and industry: mechanised farming and improved storage have increased food supply, while industrialisation created jobs, wealth and better living standards. This has supported larger populations, though in industrialised nations it has also encouraged smaller families and slower growth, whereas in developing nations improved food and health have boosted numbers. Industry also draws people together, raising population in urban areas.

(b) Factors accounting for high population density in Java

1. Fertile volcanic soils that support intensive cultivation of rice and other crops, feeding a large population.
2. Favourable equatorial/tropical climate with abundant rainfall and high temperatures allowing farming all year (double cropping).
3. Intensive wet-rice (padi) agriculture that yields large amounts of food from small areas of land.
4. Good development of industry, trade, transport and towns (e.g. Jakarta), providing employment that attracts and holds many people.