World Population: Past, Present, & Future

World Population: Past, Present, & Future uses a multidisciplinary approach to investigate in depth on important aspects of the evolution of world population not well addressed previously. The authors from the Universidad Autonoma, Madrid (Spain), professors Julio A Gonzalo, Manuel Alfonseca, and Félix-Fernando Muñoz, point out that the recent pronounced growth in world population (accompanied by an even more pronounced growth in agricultural production) was due mainly to the increase of life expectancy and not to the (inexistent) growth in fertility rate. Using a "rate equations" approach for the first time, they describe population trends and forecast the possibility of steps up (or down) in population rather than the exponential growth predicted by UN demographers around 1985 and thereafter. This book provides a new perspective that our planet is not overpopulated and could, in fact, house a considerably larger population.
Contents:ForewordContentsPopulation, the Economy, and the Environment:Introductory ConsiderationsThe Earth as a Privileged PlanetMathematical Descriptions of Population TrendsWorld Population Growth: 1900–2010: The UN DataWorld Economic Expansion: 1945–1990Energy, Population and the EnvironmentIs the Earth Overpopulated?:Abortion and Population ControlGovernment Family Planning Now and in the FutureThe Rhetoric of Population Control: Does the End Justify the Means?Rate Equations Approach and the Future of World Population:Using a Rate Equations Approach to Model World Population TrendsProspects of World Population Slow DownFalling Birth Rates and World Population Projections: A Quantitative Discussion (1950–2050)Quantitative Estimates of the Future World Population DeclineMalthus's Mistake
Readership: Undergraduates and graduates interested in demography and those who are keen to examine demographic trends, population theories and policy interventions.