World Population - A Reference Handbook (Electronic book text, 2nd)

Exhaustively updated, this second edition provides a current assessment of world population and the range of economic, social, and environmental issues it raises. Is the world facing urgent questions regarding its population? Undoubtedly. But understanding the true nature of that urgency means going beyond the simplistic assumption that global population is expanding at an unacceptable rate. In fact, some industrialized nations are looking at debilitating population decreases, while elsewhere, population is being controlled not by policy or individual human choices, but by disease, war, and environmental disaster. What do we now know about the future capacity of the Earth to support humankind? How do experts approach the wide range of economic, demographic, and environmental issues affected by population rates?