ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the relationship of population to sustainability, how population policy has evolved over time and space, and how it may apply to a present and future world. It argues that while the rate of population change is critical, and non-coercive measures such as migration, education and contraception are more effective in checking growth in people numbers, a viable population policy will result in increasing density this century such is the result of momentum. Fears of both over and under-population have in the past gained sway over relatively short periods of time. Thomas Malthus’ views were developed as another Victorian ‘iron law’, which implied that poverty, war, abstinence and birth control were needed to hold the population in check lest food supplies ran out. In a spirit of technological optimism similar to Engels, but with more respect for nature than to require its subjugation, Arthur Clarke foresaw a transformed future.
