This timely collection of 15 original essays written by expert scientists the world over addresses the relationships between human population growth, the need to increase food supplies to feed the world population, and the chances for avoiding the extinction of a major proportion of the world's plant and animal species that collectively makes our survival on Earth possible. These relationships are highly intertwined, and changes in each of them steadily decrease humankind’s chances to achieve environmental stability on our fragile planet. The world population is projected to be nine to ten billion by 2050, signaling the need to increase world food production by more than 70 percent on the same amount of land currently under production—and this without further damaging our fragile environment. The essays in this collection, written by experts for laypersons, present the problems we face with clarity and assess our prospects for solving them, calling for action but holding out viable solutions.

Earth and Us: Population, Resources, Environment, Development is a compilation of ideas and thoughts of leading international statesmen, political leaders, economists and environmentalists, on the complex interlinkages between man and his environment. The book examines aspects of the nexus between population, resources, environment and development, and presents ideas on what can be done in the future. The articles contained in the book covers various topics such as environmental concerns in the third world; climatic change, environment and development; environmental aspects of agricultural and rural development; and environmental protection and economic development. Environmentalists, ecologists, and policy makers will find the book highly insightful.

Numbers of peoples. Population structure and projection. The limits of the earth. Food production. Environmental threats to man. Ecosystems in jeopardy. Optimum population and human biology. Birth control. Fa, ily planning and population control. Social, political, and economic changes. The international scene.

Discusses environmental problems, policies, ethical, and scientific concerns arising from the impact of overpopulation on our planet.

This book broadens and deepens understanding of a wide range of population-climate change linkages. Incorporating population dynamics into research, policymaking and advocacy around climate change is critical for understanding trajectory of global greenhouse gas emissions, for developing and implementing adaptation plans and thus for global and national efforts to curtail this threat. The papers in this volume provide a substantive and methodological guide to the current state of knowledge on issues such as population growth and size and emissions; population vulnerability and adaptation linked to health, gender disparities and children; migration and urbanization; and the data and analytical needs for the next stages of policy-relevant research.