Population control

[Woody Woods]

It's interesting that in many societies where the fraction of parents' income
spent on raising and educating a child is high, and in which education
postpones starting a family, there is low or even negative population growth,
as in some European countries and Russia. The U.S. growth rate is pretty low
if immigration is not considered.
 
On the other hand, in many countries where education typically stops at or
before the equivalent of high school, but where nevertheless the modern
technologies for habitat alteration are available (Latin America, Africa,
China), the picture is different.
 
"How many people can the earth support?" by demographer Joel Cohen is the most
complete and balanced treatment of this subject I know of. He addresses at
some length the differences between carrying capacity as we all learned it and
the concept as it may apply-- or not-- to humans.
 
In business we used to complain about people who stated problems without
offering solutions, but that's just what I'm doing!
 
Cheerios,
 
Woody Woods
 
Michael Gochfeld wrote:
>
> I'll add my voice to James.  As Ray Bradbury said: "something evil comes
> this way".
> Human population is, after all, the ultimate environmental hazard.  The
> optimists are saying that population will level off at 10 billion or so,
>
--
*********************************************************
William A. Woods Jr.
Department of Biology
University of Massachusetts Boston
100 Morrissey Blvd                      Lab: 617-287-6642
Boston, MA 02125                        Fax: 617-287-6650
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