Document Type
Working Paper
Publication Date
2005
Abstract
Sustainability refers to the preservation of human-valued natural capital—the resources that provide environmental services—at a level sufficient to assure the well-being of future generations. This Population Council working paper assess the effects on the total and per capita availability of those services. The degradation of environmental services—exemplified by the overuse of aquifers or (at a global level) of the atmospheric carbon sink—is a significant threat to sustainable development, one that is often exacerbated by population growth. The critical management issue in such cases is the design of effective governing institutions to restrain service demand and safeguard supply. Uncertainties arising from nonlinearities and irreversibilities in environmental systems should give pause to expectations that the forecast ending of world population growth, and a subsequent decline in human numbers, will usher in ecological restoration.
DOI
10.31899/pgy2.1015
Language
English
Recommended Citation
McNicoll, Geoffrey. 2005. "Population and sustainability," Policy Research Division Working Paper no. 205. New York: Population Council.
Project
Population, Environmental Risks, and the Climate Crisis (PERCC)
Included in
Demography, Population, and Ecology Commons, Environmental Public Health Commons, International Public Health Commons, Sustainability Commons