The Third Revolution: Environment, Population, and a Sustainable World

Harrison ( Inside the Third World ) addresses one of our major problems in this thoughtful and authoritative study, exploring the links between population growth and environmental degradation. The root cause of the latter, he maintains, is poverty, which leads to land degradation and deforestation. He points out that population growth is not a purely independent factor; it is high wherever health and education are poor. Harrison shows in grim detail conditions in Madagascar, Lesotho, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Bangladesh. He discusses urbanization, solid waste disposal, air and water pollution and the consumption of goods. Harrison's proposed options for action include reorienting spending priorities, using low-cost appropriate technology, and undertaking sustainable management of forests and intensified agriculture on existing farmland. He also advocates the practice of agriforestry and biological methods of pest control. This is a challenging approach to the subject. (June)