ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book aims to assist in a rethinking of the population and environment debate by helping to place population processes in their social, political and economic settings, whether they be local, regional or global, and by linking them to environmental outcomes. It examines the different perspectives on population and environment held by environmental scientists and environmental activists on the one band, and women’s health researchers and feminist activists on the other. The book identifies the positions taken by these two broad groupings within the larger discourse on population and the environment, and proposes possible bases for greater mutual understanding. It provides a highly useful summary of the development of views on population, women, poverty and the environment. The natural science research needs are set out in International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme.
