Existing demographic analyses do not explain the negative relationship between population growth and life-support systems that are now emerging in scores of developing countries. The demographic transition, a theory first outlined by demographer Frank Notestein in 1945, classified all societies into one of three stages. Drawing heavily on the…

After a generation of unprecedented economic growth, the world economy appears to be losing momentum. Double-digit inflation, high interest rates, and soaring deficits are often cited as causes of the global economic slowdown, but these are more symptom than cause. More fundamental is the depletion of the global resource base that allowed the…

The interrelationship of population growth, food production, and death rates is explored. Birth rates in China, Western Europe, and North America have significantly decreased in the five-year period from 1970-75. This is largely due to widening availability of family planning services and the growing desire to use them. Four European countries…

Twenty-two facets of the world population problem are explored. The topics are economic, social, ecological, and political in nature and generally portray the stresses and strains associated with continued population growth in a world inhabited by four billion people. These aspects of the population problem are discussed: literacy, oceanic…

Aside from the growth of world population itself, urbanization is the dominant demographic trend of the late twentieth century. The number of people living in cities increased from six hundred million in 1950 to over two billion in 1986. If this growth continues unabated, more than half of humanity will reside in urban areas shortly after the turn…

The third of three annual assessments concentrating on the relationship between the world economy and its environmental support systems, this edition expands earlier themes on how economic demands of a world population approaching 5 billion affects the earth's natural systems and resources to embrace threats to security as well. The first of 11…

Population growth and resource depletion are discussed. The need is stressed for policy makers to understand how population projections relate to the carrying capacity of the earth's basic biological systems. Because the earth's resources are limited, it is essential that policy makers in developed and developing nations be able to analyze the…

The purpose of this book is to examine the interaction of the world's ecological, economic, and social systems. It is divided into 12 chapters, with the first chapter providing an introduction and overview. Chapter two assesses the dimensions of the ecological stresses being put on the environment, specifically, the world's oceans, forests,…