CIAO DATE: 07/03

Population and the Environment

Introduction

Humans have influenced environmental changes in the past, and vice versa. The two-way interaction between people and their environments will continue in the future. In the coming half-century, the human population will probably be

• larger,
• more slowly growing,
• more urban, and
• older

than in the twentieth century. No one knows whether humans will be more internationally mobile. These changes, with uncertain environmental consequences, result from human choices, individual and collective, and are therefore subject to influence by programs and policies.

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