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Population and Environment Interactions: Macro Perspectives

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International Handbook of Population and Environment

Part of the book series: International Handbooks of Population ((IHOP,volume 10))

Abstract

If human activity has a major impact on the ecosystems and on the planet’s climate, one can wonder about the role played by the “population” itself. And which dimension of the population variable really matters? Population size? Rate of growth? Population density? This chapter reviews different ways of considering the relationships between population and environment at a macro level. Starting with the Malthusian principle of population, we present different ways in which the role of population dynamics in environmental change has been analyzed: not only are Earth’s carrying capacity, the IPAT equation (Impact = Population, Affluence, Technology) and the Ecological Footprint considered but also models built to integrate interactions and feedback loops. Some models are used for projections, others to specify the consequences of different policy options. A great advance in research, particularly with regard to climate change, is the bringing together of scientific communities that had little exchange between them before, which has allowed a renewal and enrichment of approaches, such as the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways combined in the Representative Concentration Pathways.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/development-agenda/

  2. 2.

    http://aurora.icaap.org/index.php/aurora/article/view/18/29

  3. 3.

    Seehttps://data.footprintnetwork.org/?_ga=2.1552182 99.1555743474.1613403998-1651254882.1613245314#/compareCountries?type=EFCtot& cn=231&yr=2017

  4. 4.

    The first edition of World Dynamics was published in 1971.

  5. 5.

    https://iiasa.ac.at/web/home/research/researchPrograms/WorldPopulation/Research/PDE-Concept.en.html

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut national d’études démographiques (Ined), Campus Condorcet 9 cours des Humanités, CS 50004, 93322, Aubervilliers Cedex, France

    Jacques Véron

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  1. Jacques Véron
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Correspondence to Jacques Véron .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA

    Lori M. Hunter

  2. Department of Geography, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Clark Gray

  3. Campus Condorcet, National Institute for Demographic Studies, Aubervilliers Cedex, France

    Jacques Véron

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Véron, J. (2022). Population and Environment Interactions: Macro Perspectives. In: Hunter, L.M., Gray, C., Véron, J. (eds) International Handbook of Population and Environment. International Handbooks of Population, vol 10. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76433-3_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76433-3_2

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