This anthology provides an historical overview of the scientific ideas behind environmental prediction and how, as predictions about environmental change have been taken more seriously and widely, they have affected politics, policy, and public perception. Through an array of texts and commentaries that examine the themes of progress, population, environment, biodiversity and sustainability from a global perspective, it explores the meaning of the future in the twenty-first century. Providing access and reference points to the origins and development of key disciplines and methods, it will encourage policy makers, professionals, and students to reflect on the roots of their own theories and practices.

Malthus' life's work on human population and its dependency on food production and the environment was highly controversial on publication in 1798. He predicted what is known as the Malthusian catastrophe, in which humans would disregard the limits of natural resources and the world would be plagued by famine and disease. He significantly influenced the thinking of Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace and his theories continue to raise important questions today in the fields of social theory, economics and the environment. With an introduction by Robert Mayhew.

This book examines the history behind the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of population policies in the more developed, the less developed, and the least developed countries from 1950 until today, as well as their future prospects. It links population policies with the theories of the demographic, epidemiological, and migratory transitions. It begins by summarizing the demographic situation around the world, with an emphasis on population policies and their underlying theories. Then, it reviews the early efforts to reduce mortality and fertility in the developing countries. This is followed by a description of the internationalization of the debate on population issues and the transformation of these programs into more formal population policies, particularly in the developing countries. The book reviews also the situation of the developed countries and their specific challenges – sub-replacement fertility, population aging, and immigration – and examines the effectiveness of population policies. It also explores the way forward and future prospects for population policies over the next decades. The book provides numerous concrete examples from all over the world, and show how population policies are actually implemented and what have been their successes as well as their constraints. Above all, the book highlights the importance of understanding underlying demographic trends when assessing the development prospects of any country. The book is recommended for not only demographers, social scientists, and policymakers but also economists and political scientists who are interested in social and demographic change around the world. Demography students and researchers who are interested in applying knowledge on population trends and prospects in designing and evaluating public policies will find this an invaluable reference work.

This collection of 135 short essays published from 2001 to 2020 offers a global perspective on population phenomena and issues. In addition to providing data, information and statistics, the essays also raise critical concerns, ethical questions and policy choices relating to population. In addition to traditional demographic concerns, such as size, growth, distribution, ageing, fertility, mortality and migration, these essays address a wide variety of social, economic, political, legal, environmental and cultural considerations that greatly impact populations.

By 2100, the human population may exceed 11 billion. Having recently surpassed 7.5 billion, it has trebled since 1950. Are such numbers sustainable, given a deepening environmental crisis? Can so many live well? Or should world population be controlled? The population question, one of the twentieth century’s most bitterly contested issues, is being debated once again. In this compelling book, Diana Coole examines some of the profound political and ethical questions involved. Are ethical objections to government interference with individuals’ reproductive freedom definitive? Is it possible to limit population in a non-coercive way that is consistent with liberal-democratic values? Interweaving erudite original analysis with an accessible overview of the crucial debates, Coole argues that a case can be made for reducing our numbers in ways that are compatible with human rights. This book will be essential reading for anyone interested in one of the most important questions facing our planet, from concerned citizens to students of politics, sociology, political economy, gender studies and environmental studies.

The first major study of population size and its tremendous importance to the character and quality of society, this classic examines the tendency of human numbers to outstrip their resources.

This book is a sweeping global and intellectual history that radically recasts our understanding of Malthus's Essay on the Principle of Population, the most famous book on population ever written or ever likely to be. Malthus's Essay is also persistently misunderstood. First published anonymously in 1798, the Essay systematically argues that population growth tends to outpace its means of subsistence unless kept in check by factors such as disease, famine, or war, or else by lowering the birth rate through such means as sexual abstinence. Challenging the widely held notion that Malthus's Essay was a product of the British and European context in which it was written, Alison Bashford and Joyce Chaplin demonstrate that it was the new world, as well as the old, that fundamentally shaped Malthus's ideas.