Six Billion Plus

This balanced text offers a concise and readable introduction to world population growth and its implications for the future. With a population currently exceeding six billion and expected to reach ten billion by mid-century, the globe faces a demographic situation that is now more critical than ever before. While the developed world grapples with the problems of an aging and declining population, the developing world will contend with the opposite dilemma of explosive growth. And so the strongest factors shaping the global environment in the decades to come will include population fertility, the social and economic impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, legal and illegal immigration, and refugees. The implications are enormous as population growth exacerbates food and resource scarcities, places pressure on institutions, and promotes the potential for conflict. Drawing on a geographical perspective and using examples from around the world, this fully updated edition will be an invaluable resource for all readers concerned with the intertwined issues of population, environment, and health.

Recognizing that world population growth will be explosive well into the twenty-first century, Six Billion Plus offers a geographical and global perspective on the profound implications of this trend. This compact, balanced, and accessible text focuses on the key factors that will shape the global environment in the decades to come, including population fertility, epidemics like HIV/AIDS, legal and illegal immigration, refugee flows, scarce resources, and the potential for conflict. This fully updated edition will be an invaluable resource for all readers concerned with the intertwined issues of population, environment, and health.

K. Bruce Newbold is professor in the School of Geography and Earth Sciences and director of the McMaster Institute of Environment and Health at McMaster University.