Global Issues

Now reorganized and updated throughout, the fifth edition of this well-regarded introductory global issues text continues to reflect the most important aspects of an increasingly globalized world.

Reorganized into more accessible chapters better suited to semester-long courses, with new sections covering development, climate change, pollution, and governance
The only survey-level text in the field to unite the perspectives of geography, political science, sociology, ecology, international relations, economics, and development studies
Moves beyond the international to be truly global in focus, with coverage of topics such as wealth and poverty, population, food, energy, natural resources, and technology
Incorporates new case studies and examples, including the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the effects of changing water supply on migration, natural gas fracking, and smart grid technology
Offers a dynamic and accessible narrative with many student-friendly features, such as chapter boxes, a glossary of terms, guides to further reading, media and Internet resources

Discover up-to-date related news articles for inspiring discussion and research at https://www.facebook.com/GlobalIssuesHiteSeitz.

Kristen A. Hite teaches international environmental law and global administrative law classes at the Francis King Carey School of Law at the University of Maryland, USA and serves as senior advisor to Victori Tauli-Corpuz, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. She also leads a consulting practice for clients supporting public interest work on climate change, forests, and community rights. Her research focuses on international institutions and the role of social and environmental policies, tenure and human rights in pursuit of sustainable development. She has taught at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies as well as American University’s School of International Service, and has lectured extensively around the world in locations ranging from Pekanbaru, Indonesia, to World Bank headquarters in Washington, DC.

John L. Seitz is Professor Emeritus of Government at Wofford College, USA. He earned a BA and MPA from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, and a PhD in political science from the University of Wisconsin. He is a Member of Phi Beta Kappa and has extensive first-hand experience of South Korea, Iran, Brazil, Liberia, and Pakistan. Previous editions of this book, for which he was sole author, have been used around the world and have been translated into a number of languages, including Chinese, Japanese, and Portuguese.

List of Plates xii

List of Figures, Maps, and Tables xiv

Acknowledgments xvi

Foreword xvii

Introduction 1

The Creation of Global Issues 1

Developing toward What? 2

Notes 5

1 Population 7

The Changing Population of the World 8

Causes of the Population Explosion 17

How Population Growth Affects Development 20

Rapid growth 21

Slow growth 22

An aging population and low birth rates 22

International conferences on population 24

How Development Affects Population Growth 26

Demographic transition 26

Factors lowering birth rates 28

Governmental Population Policies 31

Controlling growth 31

Promoting growth 36

The Future 38

The growth of the world’s population 38

The carrying capacity of the Earth 39

Optimum size of the Earth’s population 42

Population-related problems in our future 43

Conclusions 44

Notes 46

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Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials