The importance of human ecology at the threshold of the next millennium: How can population growth be stopped?

Ecology is defined as the set of complex interactions between the biotic an d abiotic environments. Human ecology concerns principally the population e cology "only" of Homo sapiens, but it also includes all aspects of global e cology because humans are the most important species. Human demography is c haracterized by a recent decline in mortality and fertility rates. These de mographic transitions have largely been completed in industrialized countri es, but not in the 140 developing countries. Approximately 100 countries ar e following the same demographic pattern as industrialized countries, howev er with a time delay of several generations. China has effectively reduced its population increase by means that would be unacceptable in Western demo cracies. Some 44 developing countries still show increasing population grow th and no detectable demographic transition in birth rate. Thus one part of the world shows limited (and, in the long run, shrinking) population growt h, and another continues with a strong increase. All populations are limite d in their development by their sustainability by their environment, for ex ample, food and energy resources, and the extent of pollution which the use of these resources produces. It is argued that in the case of human popula tion the limits of sustainability have already been reached with the 6 bill ion humans alive today, since at least 20% of these suffer from hunger, nat ural resources are overexploited, and biodiversity is threatened. In the co ming 200 years it is more likely that the total population will substantial ly oscillate rather than approach the predicted 12 billion. The most import ant goal of human ecology should therefore be to slow population growth as far as possible.