Population, resources, and environmental sustainability

Author: Yang Kufu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-12-01
Features: The most important theoretical viewpoints, structure, and empirical research suggestions of the entire book are extracted and placed at the beginning to meet the needs of readers who do not have time to read the entire book or are only interested in a specific part of it. With the deepening of sustainable development research, increasing consensus has been reached in areas primarily involving population, resources, environment, economic development, and social development. Based on the people-centered development perspective, which holds that the purpose of development is to meet the needs of comprehensive human development, the main driving forces of development today and in the future come from human capital. Population sustainability is the key to the overall sustainability, resource sustainability is the starting point and prerequisite, environmental sustainability is the goal and endpoint, while economic and social sustainability are the means and pathways to achieve overall sustainability.
Combining China's actual situation, the basic points of the strategy for sustainable development of population, resources, and environment are:
Comprehensive moderate population theory, implementing integrated population control, quality improvement, and structural adjustment, with "control," "improvement," and "adjustment" working together and mutually promoting each other, with a current focus on population control.
Theory of scarce resources, implementing integrated resource conservation, renewable resource development, and resource utilization efficiency improvement, with "conservation," "renewable," and "improvement" working together, with a current focus on improving resource utilization efficiency.
Ecosystem theory, implementing integrated environmental protection, environmental improvement, and harmonious development between population and the environment, with "protection," "improvement," and "harmony" working together and mutually promoting each other, with a current focus on environmental protection.
Over the past 30 years, the international community has made significant progress in understanding, researching, and practicing sustainable development of population, resources, and environment. China, as a developing country with the largest population, has made unremitting efforts. Through this, sustainable development itself demonstrates its long-term and challenging nature. Whether it can be achieved depends on the scientific nature of policies, the correctness of strategies and tactics, and the feasibility of decisions.
Starting from China's actual situation and combining the theories and practices of sustainable development in the international community, this book focuses on the population perspective, proposing macro-level decision-making choices and reform ideas for sustainable development of population, resources, and environment.