How many Americans?

by Leon F. Bouvier

In this tough-minded, lucid book, Leon Bouvier and Lindsey Grant examine the inevitable and escalating environmental degradation that will result if population growth pushes the limits of our already strained environmental carrying capacity. If we are already grappling with dirty air, poisoned water, destruction of forests, the loss of topsoil, vanishing species, and the deterioration of cities, with the gap between rich and poor growing ever wider, what will the next century be like as we grow from 260 to 400 million? The prospects the authors describe are not pretty ones. . Because of our energy-demanding consumption-driven economy, the United States is the leading source of two of the gravest threats to life on this planet - acid precipitation and climatic warming. Given the disproportionate damage we as Americans create, the authors call for appropriate attention to the difficult issues raised by population questions. Analyzing current and projected rates of fertility, mortality an