Beyond Malthus

Humanity is running up against more and more of the planet's limits. Drawing on Worldwatch Institute research, this book looks at how a growing population strains the world's supply of food, fresh water and fish, along with jobs, schooling, incomes and public health. Talk of a falling birth rate in parts of Europe and Japan does not change the projection that the global population will grow by more than 3 billion by 2050, and fast-growing countries are likely to exceed what their natural systems can sustain.

Many governments that have spent decades managing rapid growth lack the means to respond to new diseases, shortages of food and water, and mass unemployment. In several African countries, hunger, disease and social breakdown are already pushing death rates up and slowing population growth. The author argues that nations will either shrink their families quickly or nature will impose a harsher limit. Specific cases include Pakistan, whose population is expected to pass that of the United States before 2050, and southern African countries where AIDS deaths, in a region where more than a fifth of adults carry HIV, are expected to balance out high birth rates.

The book is part of the Worldwatch Environmental Alert series and treats slowing population growth as one of the most pressing tasks as the world enters the new millennium.