Poverty contributes to environmental degradation However, equally if not more important in reducing environmental degradation is changing the lifestyles of the affluent to become less consumer oreintated and less wasteful. This will ensure resources are used sustainably so that future generations may have adequate resources. Among all population groups, urbanisation has lead to the decline in the importance of the extended family and the emergence of the nuclear family. A number of South African sociological studies have investigated the existence of a great variation in family structures and the term household is usually preferred as the unit for social analysis. With a growing population, the emergence of smaller households means that the number of households must be increasing, which in turn will increase consumption.
Migrant labour is a further factor in the social and environmental pressures in South Africa.
Labour for the South African mines and industries were mostly drawn from remote rural areas. This resulted in the existence of de facto single parent families in rural areas and in a predominance of older people, children and women. These households were usually dependent on the natural environment to secure a livelihood, as income was limited and irregular. The poor, relying on natural resources for building materials Sociologists agree that socio-economic status increases as societies move towards industrialisation. Social mobility goes hand in hand with changing occupational structures, better education and, in South Africa, political transformation.