This theme relates to sustainability, air and water quality, resource management and others. Key concepts are demographics, population dynamics/ growth curves, what it means to be sustainable, effects of overpopulation on organisms (e.g., research on rat populations), ecological impacts of population, violence, hunger, how societies provide for themselves, ethics of government intervention in family planning, policies that affect family size.

· At the local level, a case could be developed on population growth patterns in the region, including immigration, available resources (natural and human), rates of violent crime and other "livability measures."

· Nationally: Immigration and U.S. population growth measures, employment rates, hunger and illiteracy rates, violent crime rates.

http://www.culturediversity.org/mig.htm A case study on Hispanic immigrants working in horrible conditions on an egg farm in Maine.

Hunger in the US - a case with questions and links

http://miavx1.muohio.edu/~kaufmadg/hunger.html

· International: Could be cases on other nation’s policies to control population, such as in China. Cases such as the following (already on the web) might be appropriate

Environmentally Sound Management of the Populations of Kenya and Zimbabwe
http://miavx1.muohio.edu/~kaufmadg/kenzim.html "Population growth has been a problem in recent history in many regions of the world. Rapid population growth exerts pressure on a society’s resources, causing environmental degradation, higher poverty levels, and social instability. Sub-Saharan Africa is a prime example of this situation. This region is home to the highest fertility rates in the world. Only recently have those rates begun to decline. . . .Population is a resource that, as in Kenya and Zimbabwe, may have negative effects on a society when it is not managed properly. A way to avoid future problems is to implement environmentally sound management."

http://www.library.utoronto.ca/pcs/eps/pakistan/pak1.htm Pakistan – extensive papers on role of ecological factors including population on violence and the state

http://www.library.utoronto.ca/pcs/eps/rwanda/rwanda1.htm The case of Rwanda – lengthy report and analysis. "The recent catastrophe in Rwanda is of great concern to policymakers, and many analysts have suggested that demographic and ecological factors powerfully contributed to the violence. A report on Rwanda therefore examines whether rapid population growth and cropland scarcities helped cause the civil conflict. Although the report concludes that the country's demographic and scarcity stresses were extreme, these pressures are best seen as factors aggravating, not directly causing, the country's widespread ethnocide"

Venuzuala deforestation and the politics of land ownership (and population)

http://www.ess.co.at/GAIA/CASES/VEN/pop/pop.html nice demographic data

http://www.ess.co.at/GAIA/CASES/VEN/index.html Background info

http://www.state.gov/www/global/prm/index.html US Dept. of State site on Population, Refugees and Migration.

http://www.worldwatch.org/  A site with many connections to global environmental issues, newsletters, etc. Mission Statement: "The Worldwatch Institute is dedicated to fostering the evolution of an environmentally sustainable society--one in which human needs are met in ways that do not threaten the health of the natural environment or the prospects of future generations. The Institute seeks to achieve this goal through the conduct of inter-disciplinary non-partisan research on emerging global environmental issues, the results of which are widely disseminated throughout the world"

http://www.popexpo.net/eMain.html    6 Billion Humans, an interactive exhibit from the Musee de l’Homme (Museum of Man) in France. Lets you plug in your age and see how you would fit into the population in various world regions. Fun.

http://www.census.gov/ US Census bureau homepage

http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/ US census bureau international stats

http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/pas.html population analysis spreadsheets Downloadable to Excel

http://www.jps.net/zpg/dishonest.htm A listing of web pages that publish disinformation on the world population and other ecological crises, according to World Overpopulation Awareness

http://www.overpopulation.org/  This is the homepage to World Overpopulation Awareness. It has many links to myths, facts, news, and issues and is a resource for researching population impacts on society and ecology.

http://www.igc.apc.org/desip/populationindex.html Demographic, environmental and security issues project reports of the International Global Communication network. Seems to be a reputable organization focused on social justice, democracy and sustainability. This page has many population references, including maps

http://www.popinfo.org/issues/index.htm Gives short briefing pages on a variety of issues related to population growth. These aren’t very scholarly, but good for that quick overview.

http://dieoff.org/page27.htm  Summary of Paul Erlich’s Population Explosion, with links to energy consumption and availability data (click on synopsis).

http://www.worldwatch.org/pubs/ea/bmp.html  Summary of a book Beyond Malthus: Nineteen Dimensions of the Population Change, Lester Brown, Gary Gardner, Brian Halweil. 1999.