TY  - BOOK
AU  - Weeks, John Robert
TI  - Population: an introduction to concepts and issues 
SN  - 534061389
AV  - HB 871 .W44 1986 
PY  - 1986///
CY  - Belmont, California
PB  - Wadsworth Publishing Company
KW  - POPULATION
N1  - Includes bibliographical references and index; Part One. A Demographic Perspective -- Part Two. Population Processes -- Part Three. Population Structure and Characteristics -- Part Four. Population and Contemporary Social Issues -- Part Five. Using the Demographic perspective
N2  - Population growth in the 1950s and 1960s could have been likened to a runaway train without an engineer, veering perilously close to a collision course with shortages of food and resources. That specter was altered somewhat by the events of the 1970s, especially by a few hopeful signs of a downturn in the birth rates of several large developing nations. For the 1980s, the imagery seems to have changed from the collision course to something equally terrifying. We are faced with a situation analogous to an immense locomotive hurtling down the track at a speed faster than the roadbed can tolerate. The engineer is groping for the brakes, but if and when those brakes are fully applied, the train will still cover a huge distance before it comes to a halt. How much havoc will the charging locomotive of population wreak before it stops, and what condition will we be in at that point? These are two of the most important questions that face the world.  Over the years I have found that most people are either blissfully unaware of the enormous impact that population growth and change have on their lives, or else they have heard so many horror stories about impending doom that they are nearly overwhelmed whenever they think of population growth. My purpose in this book is to shake you out of your lethargy (if you are one of those types), without necessarily scaring you in the process. I will introduce you to the basic concepts of population studies and help you develop your own demographic perspective, enabling you to understand some of the most important issues confronting the world. My intention is to sharpen your perception of population growth and change, to increase your awareness of what is happening and why, and to help prepare you to cope with (and help shape) a future that will be shared with billions more people than there are today
ER  -