Dr. Michael E. Newman presented the 2016 AAAE Distinguished Lecture at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Agricultural Education in Kansas City, Missouri in May, 2016. The article is a philosophical work based upon the author's experiences in the agricultural education profession.

China's one-child policy has been an unprecedented policy experiment in human history. Despite its significant achievements, the policy has induced equally significant potential problems. As problems of the one-child policy have been widely noticed and suggestions for adjustments are available, the leadership transition of China in 2012 and 2013…

Russia's future is put in jeopardy by a decline in both the size of the population and its health and human capital. There is an urgent need for policies to deal with this problem.

Environmentalist Lester Brown famously likened the declining natural environment to a global Ponzi scheme, where the decimation of the planet's natural asset base has yielded high, yet unsustainable economic returns. Brown cited a range of examples, from population growth to food security to air pollution. His claims took on new urgency this year…

The American system of higher education is a diverse mosaic of institutions offering broad access and a great deal of choice. In the two decades from 1984 to 2004, the minority student population in the United States grew by 146 percent to about 5 million, or one-third of all college students. To accommodate this population growth, an increasing…

What impact does inequality have on metropolitan areas? Crime rates are higher in places with more inequality, and people in unequal cities are more likely to say that they are unhappy. There is also a negative association between local inequality and the growth of both income and population, once we control for the initial distribution of skills.…

Literature on leadership and change suggests that leaders help drive and sustain first- and second-order change and that they help to motivate people towards a vision based on common values; therefore, leaders do need to be prepared for significant responsibility. Leaders should ask, what "grand narrative" are today's leaders, this…

This paper presents Peter McPherson's statement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He begins by saying that people have an immediate problem that must be addressed, hopefully in a way that does not complicate long-term solutions. They also have a long-term and more complicated agricultural problem that the world has neglected over many…

The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) leads a Mission Growth Working Group, which consists of states that are significantly impacted by the growth of military bases. The group includes state representatives appointed by the governors of Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana,…

The Vatican, because of its position on population growth, threatens the security of all nations. Catholic countries with right-wing dictatorships cannot confront the Vatican on family planning and survive. U.S. Catholics must confront the Vatican on this issue. American lay Catholics must break the American church away from the Vatican control.…

Discusses issues related to perpetual population growth. Argues that if we believe that there are no limits to growth, we will have to abandon the concept of a spherical Earth which puts limits to growth. (JRH)

Proposes the study of islands to develop a method of integrating sustainable development with sound resource management that can be extrapolated to more complex, highly populated continental coastal areas. (MDH)

Utah is the fastest growing state in the United States because its birthrate is the highest. The parenthood compulsion is a Mormon ethic, equivalent almost to the Catholic mandate. (RM)

Examines how the writings of historian Walter Prescott Webb have influenced modern futurist works. Webb's concerns about new frontiers, population growth, the environment, and other aspects of society are discussed. (AM)

Discusses the problems created by an increasing population. Emphasizes the need to reassess the status of environmental resources, and suggests that definitive plans must be made to improve environmental management now and for the future. (Author/VWL)