“Population, poverty, environment, and climate dynamics in the developing world,” in the Interdisciplinary Environmental Review (2010 – Vol. 11, No.2/3 pp. 112 – 126), by Jason Bremner, David Lopez-Carr, Laurel Suter, and Jason Davis, attempts to illuminate and clarify the complex relationships between environmental degradation, population dynamics, and poverty. Population growth is a key driver for the degradation of ecosystem services which has a direct impact on livelihoods and human well-being, write the authors, especially for the poor. They argue that “population growth itself, however, remains an insufficient explanation of the relationship between population, ecosystems, and poverty.” While the field has a come a long way since its “original Malthusian roots,” they write, the relationships between these dynamics differ greatly depending on the area in question, and much work remains to be done on the less well-studied ecosystems (from The New Security Beat, a daily blog of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars’ Environmental Change and Security Program, posted by Schuyler Null, April 26, 2011).
Jason Bremner, the lead author of the article, is the Population Reference Bureau’s program director for Population, Health, and Environment in Washington, DC; David Lopez-Carr heads our Human-Environment Dynamics Lab, Jason Davis is a Postdoctoral Researcher with Lopez-Carr; and Laurel Suter is a grad student with Lopez-Carr as her adviser. According to the paper’s abstract, “This paper reviews extant evidence and offers a conceptual framework for the investigation of complex dynamics among human population growth, environmental degradation, poverty, and climate change. The paper introduces theories relating to population growth, environmental degradation, the impact on human well-being, and potential relations with climate change. Poverty is discussed in detail as both a contributing factor to and consequence of population growth and environmental change. The empirical literature on land cover change and environmental change in coastal and marine resources and potential relations with climate change are examined. Despite notable limitations to current knowledge on links among population growth, ecosystems, climate, and poverty, implications for further research and policy application are rich.”
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