How Americans View World Population Issues [142 Pages, 4.9MB] – This report presents the results of a survey of Americans’ views about global demographic trends and issues in the context of U.S. international economic assistance. The survey was conducted in August- September 1998 by Belden Russonello & Stewart, a public-opinion research firm in Washington, D.C., in conjunction with Ronald Hinckley of Research/Strategy/Management, and coordinated by Sally Patterson of Wagner Associates Public Affalrs Consulting, Inc., a public-affairs consulting firm based in Washington, D.C., and New York, N.Y. The work was performed jointly for RAND, with funding from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA). The survey explored public knowledge about world population facts and trends and public views on specific issues, such as U.S. international economic assistance, family planning, and abortion. This report should be of interest to anyone concerned with what the pub- lic knows and thinks about population-related issues.

World Population Shifts, Boom or Doom? [49 Pages, 1.52MB] – The structure of world population growth is changing. The world’s current population of roughly 6 billion is likely to grow by an additional billion people every 12 to 13 years. This average growth rate (1.4 percent) masks the fact that some parts of the world are growing much faster than others. Developed countries are growing at less than 0.3 percent per year, while the rest of the world is growing almost six times that fast. These demographic differences, as well as widening economic differences, between the developed and less- developed world are increasing the flow of people toward the developed world. How the developed world responds to these immigration pressures will largely determine whether such pressures become a precursor to boom or doom. This presentation examines population shifts in different parts of the world, their effects on the flow of people across borders, and potential responses by the developed world to growing immigration pressures.

The post Global Population first appeared on The Black Vault.

Excerpt from the August, 1974, CIA report, entitled: Potential Implications of Trends in World Population, Food Production, and Climate.  Full document is available below.

“The widespread crop shortfalls in 1972 and the energy and fertilizer crunches in ’73 and ’74 have
raised anew the basic question of whether the production of food can keep pace with demand over the next few decades. Concern about the capability of many of the poorer countries to provide for their growing population is widespread and rising. Major international conferences planned for the second half of this year–i.e., the World Population Conference in August and the World Food Conference in November– will focus on various aspects of this question.

There is moreover, growing consensus among leading climatologists that the world is undergoing a cooling trend. If it continues, as feared, it could restrict production in both the USSR and China among other states, and could have an enormous impact, not only on the food-population balance, but also on the world balance of power.

This paper briefly reviews present trends and projections for world population and food production under assumptions of “normal” weather, and then essays a necessarily tentative exploration of the ramifications of a cooling climate. A final section address the political and other implications for the US of its potential role as the main food exporter in an increasingly hungry world.”

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Potential Implications of Trends in World Population, Food Production, and Climate, August 1974 [60 Pages, 8.98MB]

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The post Potential Implications of Trends in World Population, Food Production, and Climate first appeared on The Black Vault.