Population Politics

The Choices That Shape Our Future

Virginia Abernethy,Garrett Hardin

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351320825
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sozialwissenschaften
• Subtopic: Demographie

International efforts to regulate fertility rates so that populations do not grow beyond the earth's capacity have included technical assistance and capital; improved health care conditions to lower the risk of infant mortality; increased opportunities to develop literacy; the democratization of governments; and several decades of liberal immigration and refugee policies favoring third world nations. The persistence of high fertility despite international efforts confounds demographers. 'Population Politics' brilliantly dissects the paradigm responsible for the counterproductive efforts of nations and international agencies. Abernethy, a renowned anthropologist, shows why policies hamper the shift to lower fertility. Ireland, Indonesia, Cuba, China, Turkey and Egypt are but a few of the countries Abernethy examines, showing how economic, sociocultural, and agricultural factors that have caused population growth can be harnessed to stabilize population size. 'Population Politics' is a provocative examination of the influence of aid and liberal immigration policies on world population growth, and often counterproductive to the role of the United States as an industrial power. This volume's uniquely interdisciplinary perspective will enlighten the lay reader, as well as demographers and epidemiologists, conservationists, reproduction and family specialists, agricultural economists, and public health personnel. Virginia D. Abernethy is professor emeritus of psychiatry (anthropology) at Vanderbilt Medical School and was for 11 years the editor of the scholarly journal 'Population and Environment. Garrett Hardin is emeritus professor of human ecology in the Department of Biological Sciences and the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Index

Aborigines

Australian, 57, 58-59, 64

Greenland, 86, 87

Abortion, 11, 92, 120, 143, 144, 192, 193, 198, 202

as adaptation method, 62, 63

cultural factors and, 47, 48, 53-54

development and, 89, 90

large-family-size incentives vs., 74

sterility and, 54-55

Abstinence, 47, 52, 65, 193

Accion International, 145

Acid rain, 113, 179

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), 37, 143

Adaptation, 61-72

caution in, 69-70

methods of, 64-66

motivation and, 70-72

Aerospace industry, 233

AFDC. See Aid to Families with Dependent Children

Affirmative action, 283, 290

Afghanistan, 93

Africa, 35, 140

cultural influences in, 48-49

ecological release and, 45, 46

euphoria effect in, 21

foreign aid to, 107, 118, 151

prosperity in, 40

scarcity concept in, 103

socioeconomic trends in, 37-38

women as traders in, 146

women's education in, 148

Agriculture, 17, 42-43, 45, 176-177, 186, 256

carrying capacity and, 247-249, 252-253, 255, 256

Great Depression and, 198

labor surplus and, 190

oil and, 252-253

organic, 253

pollution and, 181

subsidized, 165-166, 177

swidden, 25, 156, 157, 159

water shortages and, 175, 255

Ahlburg, Dennis, 260, 278

AIDS. See Acquired immune deficiency syndrome

Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), 235, 237, 267, 275

Air pollution, 180, 232

Alaska,...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction to the Transaction Edition
• Foreword to the 1993 Edition
• Preface to the 1993 Edition
• I. FRAMING THE ISSUES
• II. WHY GROWTH FLIES OUT OF CONTROL
• III. THE BIG PICTURE: POLITICS, INCENTIVES, AND STRATEGIES
• IV. AMERICA: PAST AND FUTURE
• Bibliography
• Index