How Many People Can the Earth Support?

552 Pages·1995·92.369 MB·English

by  Joel E. Cohen

7i
Available
IN Paperback
For Fall 1996 Classes
(LSBNO 393-31495-2)
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ISBN0-393-03862-9 $30.00USA
$39.99CAN.
How Many People
Can the Earth Support?
JOELE.CQHEN
Past attempts —to answer this question have
ranged widely from l—ess than 1 billion to
more than 1,000 billion one sign that there
is no single right answer. More than halfofthe
estimates, however, fall within a much nar-
rower range: between 4 billion and 16 billion.
In any case, with the world population now at
5.7 billion, andincreasing byapproximately90
million peryear,we have clearlyentered a zone
where limits on the human carrying capacity of
the Earth have been anticipated, and may well
beencountered.
In this penetrating analysis of one ofthe
most crucial questions of our time, a leading
scholar in the field reviews the historyofworld
population growth and gives a refreshingly
frank appraisal of what little can be known
about its fiature. In the process, he offers the
most comprehensive account yet available of
how various people have tried to estimate the
planet's human carrying capacity. Few con-
temporary writers have addressed the issue of
world population growth in such a balanced,
objective way, without using it as a pretext to
advanceapriorpolitical agenda.
This book shows that the apparendy simple
How
question posed by its tide is incomplete:
many people can the Earth support, given
what kinds ofeconomies and technologies. At
>
what levels of material well-being.^ Living in
what physical, chemical, and biological en-
vironments.^ And with what cultural values,
whatsocial,political, andlegalinstitutions.>
The answers to these questions, the author
argues, will be determined not only by natural
constraints, which are still not fiilly under-
stood, but also by human choices. Such
—
choices about everything from food and the
environmen—t to styles oflife and other dearly
held values will in turn influence what na-
tural constraints will matter. And as these
human choices change in time, so will our
notions of the planet's human carrying
capacity.
(continuedonbackflap)
Jacketdesignandillustration byKevinONeill.
11-95

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HOW MANY
PEOPLE
CAN THE EARTH SUPPORT?
Other books byJOEL E. COHEN
A Model of Simple Competition
Casual Groups of Monkeys and Men:
Stochastic Models of Elemental Social Systems
Food Webs and Niche Space
Random Matrices and Their Applications
(edited with Harry Kesten and Charles M. Newman)
Community Food Webs: Data and Theory
(with Frederic Briand and Charles M. Newman)
Absolute Zero Gravity
(with Betsy Devine)
Mutualism and Community Organization:
Behavioral, Theoretical and Food Web Approaches
(edited with Hiroya Kawanahe and Keiji Iwasaki)
/
How
Many
People
I
Can
the Earth
Support?
COHEN
JOEL
E.
^
WW-
NORTON & COMPANY
New York London
•
Copyright © 1995 byJoel E. Cohen
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States ofAmerica
The text ofthis bookis composed in Bembo
with the display set in Bembo
Composition and manufacturing by The Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group.
Book design byJacques Chazaud
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cohen,Joel E.
How many people can the earth support? /Joel E. Cohen.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p—. 481) and index.
1. Population density. 2. Population Economic aspects.
3. Population forecasting. I. Title.
HB1953.C64 1995
304.6'1—dc20 95-6133
ISBN 0-393-03862-9
W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110
W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., 10 Coptic Street, London WCIA IPU
234567890
i
To my wife Audrey,
to our children Zoe and Adam,
and to our children's godfather
William T. Golden
I
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