https://www.whp-journals.co.uk/JPS/issue/feedThe Journal of Population and Sustainability2024-01-17T21:19:26+00:00The Journal of Population and Sustainabilityjournals@whpress.co.ukOpen Journal Systems<p>The Journal of Population and Sustainability (JP&S) is an open access interdisciplinary journal exploring all aspects of the relationship between human numbers and environmental issues. The journal publishes both peer reviewed and invited material. It is an interdisciplinary hub inviting contributions from the social sciences, humanities, environmental and natural sciences including those concerned with family planning and reproductive health. The journal includes original research papers, reviews of already published research, commentary, opinion pieces, book reviews and <em>praxis </em>articles outlining practical interventions in the field.</p>https://www.whp-journals.co.uk/JPS/article/view/1107Public Understanding, Conflict and Power in the Population and Sustainability Nexus2024-01-17T21:07:29+00:00David Samwaysdavid.samways@jpopsus.org2024-01-17T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2024 David Samwayshttps://www.whp-journals.co.uk/JPS/article/view/997Scientists’ Warning on the Problem with Overpopulation and Living Systems2023-10-09T12:26:36+01:00Lynn Lamoreuxmarylytnn@gmail.comDorothy Bennettdbennett@sgul.ac.uk<p>A biological system can be defined as a collection of interacting elements, organised together with a common function(s). This framework can provide valuable insights into the problematic interactions between humanity and the rest of life on earth. Life is composed of a nested hierarchy of systems, united into a vastly complex, global system of ecosystems, the biosystem. The function of the biosystem and its components is the sustainable reproduction and evolution of life. Humans have many of their own systems, including a global, commercially oriented system of corporations and social structures, which we term the corposystem. A major aim of the corposystem is endless growth for profit, which depends on endless human population growth: not sustainable on a finite planet. These two global systems are clearly in direct conflict. To preserve the biosystem, including humanity, we must align the corposystem ethic with the reality of the biosystem’s needs.</p>2024-01-17T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Dr. M. Lynn Lamoreux, Prof. Dorothy C. Bennett https://www.whp-journals.co.uk/JPS/article/view/966Vulnerable Populations: The Role of Population Dynamics in Climate Change Resilience and Adaptation in Africa2023-08-29T19:43:15+01:00David Samwaysdavid.samways@jpopsus.org2023-08-29T00:00:00+01:00Copyright (c) 2023 David Samwayshttps://www.whp-journals.co.uk/JPS/article/view/901How Can African Countries Address Climate Change Problems and Optimise Demographic Dividends for Socioeconomic Development?2023-05-04T09:35:55+01:00Sunday Adedinisunday.adedini@fuoye.edu.ngOlumide Taiwootaiwo@checod.orgOluwole Smileo.smile@checod.orgOlasunkanmi Ajalaoajala@aul.edu.ngSijuwade Ojuko-Aladejanasojuko@checodafrica.comPaul Akenipaulakeni@checod.org<p>As all 54 countries in Africa strive to overcome their different socio-economic challenges, the climate crisis as well as the unsustainable population growth appear to be threatening the attainment of national and international development agenda across the continent. This paper presents the relationship between climate change and population dynamics; how Africa can address the problems of the climate crisis and rapid population growth, and create the potential to harness a demographic dividend and accelerate economic growth. Many African countries need to take necessary measures to achieve a rapid and sustained fertility transition, including providing access to quality family planning services, reducing adolescent fertility, educating female children, empowering women, reducing under-five mortality and expanding labour market opportunities. These are necessary conditions for fertility transition and reaping the benefit of a demographic dividend in Africa. As African countries take strategic steps to catalyse fertility transition and accelerate economic growth, there is a need to take urgent measures to fight the climate change crisis which appears to be eroding socio-economic gains across the continent. While Africa adds only a trifling fraction of the global greenhouse gas emissions, the continent bears a disproportionately significant portion of the detrimental impact of climate change. Without the necessary actions to stem and reverse the consequences (such as health crises, food insecurity due to the destruction of crops by severe weather, the destruction of livelihoods and increases in the numbers of internally displaced persons), climate change is likely to have significant negative effects on the achievement of the sustainable development goals and the African Union’s Agenda 2063. There is a need to address the twin problems of unsustainable population growth and climate crisis in Africa.</p>2023-08-29T00:00:00+01:00Copyright (c) 2022 Sunday Adedinihttps://www.whp-journals.co.uk/JPS/article/view/898Public Opinions about Causes of Declining Fertility in Developing Countries2023-09-08T12:40:59+01:00Frank Götmarkfrank.gotmark@bioenv.gu.seWetzler Nordhildnordhild.w@gmail.com<p>Research indicates multiple causes of declining total fertility rate (TFR) in developing countries, including reduced child mortality, improved education and economy, family planning programmes and female empowerment. However, public opinions about the causes have rarely been studied. Using surveys in 2022 in Sweden and Nigeria, we compare answers of educated citizens to the question of why fertility (birth rate) has fallen in developing countries (also in Nigeria). In Sweden, 72 per cent of respondents suggested improved living conditions, including economy and education, lower infant mortality and generally progressive development. In contrast, in Nigeria 66 per cent of the respondents suggested that poverty, bad socioeconomic conditions and poor health cause declining birth rates. Birth rates were thus assumed to be falling mainly because the conditions in Nigeria are generally getting worse, not better. A contributing reason for the difference of opinions between the countries may be social norms for large families in Nigeria. Few Swedish respondents suggested family planning (1.9% of answers) but this answer was more common in Nigeria (5.9%). In Sweden, women answered contraceptive use (17%) more often than did men (4.5%), while in Nigeria the contraception answer hardly differed between men (6.1%) and women (5.7%). Only minor differences in opinion existed between the southern and northern (Muslim-dominated) states in Nigeria, among educated respondents that participated in this survey. We recommend more, and extended surveys.</p>2024-01-17T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Frank Götmark, Wetzler Nordhildhttps://www.whp-journals.co.uk/JPS/article/view/858Socio-Environmental and Physical Factors of Flood Risk in African Cities: An Analysis of Vulnerabilities in Two Contrasting Neighbourhoods in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire2023-02-16T12:38:36+00:00Stephanie Dos Santosstephanie.dossantos@ird.frAbdul Wahab Karamokokara-wab@hotmail.frAttoumane Artadjiattoumane.artadji@ird.frEric-Pascal Zahirizahiripascal@gmail.com<p>The literature on vulnerability to flooding highlights the multiple dimensions of risk factors. However, little research has analysed the joint effects of environmental and social variables on flood risk at the household level in African cities. We use an interdisciplinary approach to analyse the differentiated significance of these dimensions for the status of ‘flood victim’ in Abidjan, the major city of Côte d’Ivoire. The data used were collected in a survey of 503 households residing in two contrasting neighbourhoods of Abidjan. Modelling data with logistic regressions, the results show that physical variables (the slope of the housing plot), environmental variables (liquid and solid waste disposal) and social variables (the gender of the head of household or the composition of the household) are factors jointly associated with flood risk. The multidimensional nature of vulnerability at the household level must be seen as a challenge faced by public authorities in post-disaster management.</p>2023-08-29T00:00:00+01:00Copyright (c) 2023 Stephanie Dos Santos, Abdul Wahab Karamoko, Attoumane Artadji, Eric-Pascal Zahirihttps://www.whp-journals.co.uk/JPS/article/view/856Editorial Introduction2023-01-31T17:47:18+00:00David Samwaysdavid.samways@jpopsus.org2023-02-03T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 David Samwayshttps://www.whp-journals.co.uk/JPS/article/view/855Overshoot2023-01-31T17:43:37+00:00William Reeswrees@mail.ubc.ca<p>The human enterprise is in overshoot; we exceed the long-term carrying capacity of Earth and are degrading the biophysical basis of our own existence. Despite decades of cumulative evidence, the world community has failed dismally in efforts to address this problem. I argue that cultural evolution and global change have outpaced bio-evolution; despite millennia of evolutionary history, the human brain and associated cognitive processes are functionally obsolete to deal with the human eco-crisis. H. sapiens tends to respond to problems in simplistic, reductionist, mechanical ways. Simplistic diagnoses lead to simplistic remedies. Politically acceptable technical ‘solutions’ to global warming assume fossil fuels are the problem, require major capital investment and are promoted on the basis of profit potential, thousands of well-paying jobs and bland assurances that climate change can readily be rectified. If successful, this would merely extend overshoot. Complexity demands a systemic approach; to address overshoot requires unprecedented international cooperation in the design of coordinated policies to ensure a socially-just economic contraction, mostly in high-income countries, and significant population reductions everywhere. The ultimate goal should be a human population in the vicinity of two billion thriving more equitably in ‘steady-state’ within the biophysical means of nature.</p>2023-02-03T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 William Rees