No-Nonsense Guide to World Population (1/2 page) With world population passing seven billion and predicted to hit nine billion by 2050, we are in the grip of a number panic. This book explodes some of the common myths, looks at what the numbers really mean, and addresses nine topics, such as why women in most parts of the world have fewer children, what will happen to our societies as we all live longer, and how having babies relates to climate change. Vanessa Baird is co-editor at New Internationalist magazine. Her previous books include The No-Nonsense Guide to Sexual Diversity and, as compiler and editor, Eye to Eye Women.
Is the world heading for a population explosion? How many people can the planet sustain? With the world's inhabitants passing the seven billion count and predicted to hit nine billion by 2050, the world is on the brink of a number panic. A new addition to this acclaimed series takes a closer look at what these numbers mean, why women in most parts of the world have fewer children, what societal changes this increase will initiate and how having babies relates to climate change.
"The No Nonsense Guide to Climate Change" charts up-to-the-minute developments on climate change, explores the extent that the human race is responsible for the catastrophes and suggests what can be done to prevent them.
Wayne Roberts puts under the microscope a global food system that is under strain from climate change and from economic disaster. He shows how a world food system based on supermarkets and agribusiness corporations is unsustainable and looks at new models of producing healthy food from all over the world.
Globalisation has become one of the most used and encompassing words over the past decade, of undeniable influence in economics, politics and activism. Globalisation is literally all around; every aspect of life is affected by a global structure of communication and economy. This fully revised and updated guide condenses this complex subject into clear, concise commentary. It examines the debt trap, the acceleration of neoliberalism, competition for energy resources, the links between the war on terror, the arms trade and the alternatives to corporate control.
This guide integrates concisely the conventional narratives of history with the stories of the continents and communities of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Generations of people have been taught that population growth makes resources scarcer. In 2021, for example, one widely publicized report argued that “The world's rapidly growing population is consuming the planet's natural resources at an alarming rate . . . the world currently needs 1.6 Earths to satisfy the demand for natural resources ... [a figure that] could rise to 2 planets by 2030.” But is that true? After analyzing the prices of hundreds of commodities, goods, and services spanning two centuries, Marian Tupy and Gale Pooley found that resources became more abundant as the population grew. That was especially true when they looked at “time prices,” which represent the length of time that people must work to buy something. To their surprise, the authors also found that resource abundance increased faster than the population―a relationship that they call superabundance. On average, every additional human being created more value than he or she consumed. This relationship between population growth and abundance is deeply counterintuitive, yet it is true. Why? More people produce more ideas, which lead to more inventions. People then test those inventions in the marketplace to separate the useful from the useless. At the end of that process of discovery, people are left with innovations that overcome shortages, spur economic growth, and raise standards of living. But large populations are not enough to sustain superabundance―just think of the poverty in China and India before their respective economic reforms. To innovate, people must be allowed to think, speak, publish, associate, and disagree. They must be allowed to save, invest, trade, and profit. In a word, they must be free.
This guide questions conventional thinking about wealth and poverty—is the opposite of poverty really wealth, or is it safety and sufficiency? Drawing on experience of poor people all over the world, the author gives voice to those whose views are rarely sought and shows how we all need to live more modestly to make poverty history. Jeremy Seabrook has written more than thirty books (including Travels in the Skin Trade and Children of Other Worlds), and has worked as a teacher, social worker, journalist, lecturer, and playwright. He has contributed to many magazines, including the New Statesman and The Ecologist.
Our problems are the same. Couples are stuck in the same bad patterns. Individuals are stuck in the same bad habits that keep sabotaging their joy and expression. The obstacles that people are facing in creating a rich erotic life are the same bunch of obstacles. Just as the foundational information around what causes a bridge to stand or to collapse does not change from bridge to bridge, the foundational information about what makes partnerships thrive or fail does not vary wildly from partnership to partnership. Human nature has structure. Human eros has structure. And the glitches and the weaknesses and the misperceptions that keep tripping us up are the same ones across the population.This book is my attempt to articulate and organize these universal conversations regarding our emotional, relational and erotic lives.--- Om Rupani
