A CHANGING WORLD • • The notions

Definitions of key notions & vocabulary

Transitions
• The demographic transition: shift from a high to a low natality and mortality. Before & after the DT, population growth is small -or negative, whereas during the DT population growth is high (population boom).
• The urban transition: shift from a mostly rural to a mainly urban population.
• The economic transition: change from an economy driven first by farming, then by manufacturing and last by services to the “new economy” which today aims at more sustainability using digital innovation.
• The energy transition: progressively giving up fossil fuel and use clean, renewable energies to decarbonise activities.
• The environmental transition: transformations to prevent, limit or remedy environmental change and limit its impact.
• The agricultural transition: shift from subsistence to intensive, industrial farming and then more sustainable practices like organic farming.
• The tourist transition: progress towards a more democratised and sustainable tourism.

Development
• globalisation: massive economic & human flows interconnecting the world.
• a developed country: with a high income (GDP or Gross Domestic Product which measures the standard of living), and human development (HDI or Human Development Index which measures the quality of life).
• a developing country: with a medium or low income (GDP) and human development (HDI).
• an emerging country: with a strong economic growth not yet equally shared with all the population. The most powerful emerging countries are the BRICSAM : Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa & Mexico.
• sustainable development: shared economic growth + social welfare + environmental conservation.
• unsustainable development: economic crisis + social inequality + environmental damage.

Mobility
• mobility: move from one's home to a new location. Called migration if it's to settle permanently or temporarily.
• rural-urban migration: inflow of rural population to cities where they live in degraded housing (slums).
• push factor: negative reason why people want to leave the place they live in.
• pull factor: positive reason why people are attracted to a new place they want to settle in.
• multicultural society: cosmopolitan society, with many different ethnic communities living side by side.

Environment
• climate change: global warming and extreme weather events (heat wave, drought, storm surge) due to increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by human activity.
• pressure on resources: natural resources strained by unsustainable practices (pollution, waste or overuse) as opposed to their conservation (protecting, saving or recycling them).
• sustainable tourism, green or ecotourism: supporting environmental conservation, social development, and local economies.