2020: "Regional overload" as an indicator of profound risk: a plea for the public health community to awaken. In: Health in the Anthropocene: Living Well on a Finite Planet. Edited by Katharine Zywert and Stephen Quilley, University of Toronto Press, pp 60-85, link
Planetary health In: International Encyclopaedia of Human Geography, Elsevier (editor: Audrey Kobayashi), pp 153-157
Plagues, Pandemics, Health Security, and the War on Nature; Journal of Human Security link (Open access)
2021: Overpopulation: A century of debate that deserves re-examination link
In: Meeting the Challenges of Existential Threats through Educational Innovation
A Proposal for an Expanded Curriculum
Edited By Herner Saeverot
ABSTRACT: The risks faced by civilization, and perhaps our species, emerge from a milieu of contributory factors, of which population is only one. However, while it is possible that global civilization could have ended with a far smaller human population than today (approaching 8 billion), the enormous scale of the human enterprise is an undeniably vital risk, on a habitat with “only” the resources of an Earth-sized planet. Furthermore, and often overlooked, the rate of expansion of human numbers can, if too high, help “trap” hundreds of millions in cycles of poverty and underdevelopment, often worsened by disease and violent conflict. Slower population growth helps improve the living conditions for impoverished populations. Relative “underpopulation” in some areas leads to worries about labour supply and the influx of culturally different immigrants from areas with surplus people. Solutions for our dilemma include recognition by political and academic leaders of limits to growth. To survive we may even need an evolutionary leap, a collective realisation that in our new age, the Anthropocene, the rules that steered our species’ trajectory to its current dominance and affluence threaten catastrophe, and thus warrant revision. We need to evolve global scaled co-operation, characterised by greater equity, including guaranteed rights for minorities, to accelerate the global demographic transition and provide hope.
Planetary health In: International Encyclopaedia of Human Geography, Elsevier (editor: Audrey Kobayashi), pp 153-157
Plagues, Pandemics, Health Security, and the War on Nature; Journal of Human Security link (Open access)
2021: Overpopulation: A century of debate that deserves re-examination link
In: Meeting the Challenges of Existential Threats through Educational Innovation
A Proposal for an Expanded Curriculum
Edited By Herner Saeverot
ABSTRACT: The risks faced by civilization, and perhaps our species, emerge from a milieu of contributory factors, of which population is only one. However, while it is possible that global civilization could have ended with a far smaller human population than today (approaching 8 billion), the enormous scale of the human enterprise is an undeniably vital risk, on a habitat with “only” the resources of an Earth-sized planet. Furthermore, and often overlooked, the rate of expansion of human numbers can, if too high, help “trap” hundreds of millions in cycles of poverty and underdevelopment, often worsened by disease and violent conflict. Slower population growth helps improve the living conditions for impoverished populations. Relative “underpopulation” in some areas leads to worries about labour supply and the influx of culturally different immigrants from areas with surplus people. Solutions for our dilemma include recognition by political and academic leaders of limits to growth. To survive we may even need an evolutionary leap, a collective realisation that in our new age, the Anthropocene, the rules that steered our species’ trajectory to its current dominance and affluence threaten catastrophe, and thus warrant revision. We need to evolve global scaled co-operation, characterised by greater equity, including guaranteed rights for minorities, to accelerate the global demographic transition and provide hope.
2022: Butler, C.D., Ewald, B.D., Kiang, K., McGain, F. and Sanson, A.V. Climate change and human health. In: Williams, S.J.and Taylor, R. (eds.) Sustainability and the New Economics. Synthesising Ecological Economics and Modern Monetary Theory. Springer. pp. 51-68. link