Key Issue #1

The population in our world today is spread out unevenly with the amount of people in each country. Scientists use demography to help explain why the populations are what they are in each country. Most people today live within 300 miles of the ocean and low-lying areas with fertile soil. Countries in East Asia have thrived off of these living conditions because of their planting of rice. Without the fertile soil or water to grow this crop, countries such as china would lose its main food supply. However, over the past century more and more people have grown accustomed to an industrial lifestyle. Through the perspective of globalization, the agricultural density has been slowly diminishing because of the increasing shortage of farmers in each country. With the growing trend of cities and buildings sprouting up everywhere, the agricultural density has been drastically decreasing because of less and less amount of space in a certain region. However, this causes the physiological density to grow because of the increased amount of jobs in one area. With all of these different things adding up, overpopulation has become an increasing problem in our world today. Countries such as Japan have faced this problem with overcrowded subway stations and hard to find parking spots for cars. The ecumene has been increasing over the past few centuries, however; a lot of land on earth is still being used for farming in different countries. Many countries in South Asia and Southeash Asia are still using farming as their main way of life. Only about a fourth of the population is in an urban area and the rest are using rivers and wetlands to grow their crops. However, land that is too harsh to grow crops on is not used in the world, such as dry lands, cold lands and some high lands. In the world today, most of the world's population is distributed in Asia, Europe and the United States. These countries are where we get most of our workforce, and goods from to be used around the world.

Japan: Overcrowded from Cradle to Grave

by Steve Levenstein

Tokyo reigns as the world's largest city. The estimated population of 35 million in the Greater Tokyo Metropolitan Area gives new meaning to the word "overcrowded". With so many people crammed cheek by jowl, one might expect chaos and crime on a Lagos-ian scale, but no. Amazingly, and without the need for martial law, Tokyo works very well indeed. Crime is low by western standards, services are reliable and the infrastructure is the envy of most other cities. You won't find much peace & quiet in Tokyo; what you WILL find is a city that ticks like clockwork through the combined efforts of its people.

Sea of umbrellas
Tokyo was founded over 400 years ago but very little of the old town remains. A catastrophic earthquake in 1923 and the devastation wrought by World War II resulted in the city being rebuilt to modern standards. Wide streets that work WITH the city's infrastructure, not against it, funnel hundreds of thousands of people to and from major train stations. Overcrowded, yes, but the streets of Tokyo, Osaka and other Japanese cities are rarely prey to pedestrian gridlock.
"EEK!"... Sorry lady, just doing my job!
Like most metropolitan centers, Tokyo is a working city and the workers have to come from somewhere - and go home again at the end of each working day. They do this, for the most part, using the renowned Tokyo subway system. Multiple lines, color-coded for ease of use even by foreigners, crisscross the city from beneath like some bizarre subterranean spider web. Morning and evening rush hours are busiest, to the point where gloved and uniformed "people pushers" ensure that the doors of the overcrowded cars close smoothly.
At least it's quiet...
Alas, Japan's long-suffering citizens gain no respite from overcrowded conditions, even in death. This view of a cemetery outside Japan's ancient former capitol, Kyoto, illustrates plainly that though life may end, overcrowding goes on... and on...