Prompted by growing concern about the environmental impact of high consumption levels and population growth, these interdisciplinary essays explore in depth the connections between population size and growth, environmental destruction, and poverty. The contributors--including such distinguished scholars as P. Dasgupta, C. S. Holling, Robert Fogel, Geoffrey McNicoll, Caroline Bledsoe, Robert Willis, Amartya Sen, and Nancy Birdsall--represent the different fields most concerned with this vital topic. They examine three main themes: the Malthusian conflict, factors underlying fertility changes,...