The
Crowded Greenhouse : Population, Climate Change, and Creating a Sustainable
World/John Firor and Judith E. Jacobsen. Hyderabad, Universities Press,
2003, xiv, 237 p., figs., (pbk). ISBN 81-7371-437-1.The
Crowded Greenhouse : Population, Climate Change, and Creating a Sustainable
World/John Firor and Judith E. Jacobsen. Hyderabad, Universities Press,
2003, xiv, 237 p., figs., (pbk). ISBN 81-7371-437-1.
Contents: Preface. 1. One vision of the year 2050. 2. The new world of population policy. 3. Putting Cairo to work. 4. U.S. population activism in the new century. 5. A warming world. 6. International climate-change negotiations. 7. Creating a stable atmosphere. 8. Population and climate change together. Afterword: dancing in the crowded greenhouse. Bibliographic essay. Index.
"What is the best way to move our planet to a safe and sustainable future? This important book focusses on two global issues—rapid population growth and a human-induced climate change caused by emissions—that lie at the heart of this problem. John Firor and Judith Jacobsen summarize the current status of these two issues, show how they are related to one another, and prescribe steps that governments, economies, societies, and individuals can adopt to ensure their stability.
"Firor and Jacobsen address world population growth by focussing on the new vision for population policy articulated at the 1994 U.N. conference on population and development. They argue that the new approach is a sound strategy that can guide progress even in such prosperous industrial countries as the United States. The authors then outline what is known about the science of climate change, discuss the international negotiations on this issue currently under way, and present the policy agenda that can most economically eliminate the increasing force for climate heating. Firor and Jacobsen argue that two revolutions are necessary to bring about the underlying changes necessary to achieve a stable population and freedom from human-induced climate change: a social revolution that improves equity, particularly the status of women; and a technical revolution that yields vastly greater energy and material use efficiency than we have today. They offer a vision that incorporates these changes and urge professionals and activists to work to achieve them, even in the face of great odds."