Under The Banyan Tree: A Population Scientist's Odyssey
by Sheldon J. Segal /
2003 / English / PDF
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Human population growth has been a topic of speculation and
spirited debate since the English economist Thomas Malthus
predicted that population will increase faster than the food
supply, with catastrophic results. Today, even as fertility rates
decline on a global scale, relentless increases in population and
other population-driven factors threaten not only the food supply,
but also the stability of entire regions of the world. No single
individual has contributed more to our understanding of scientific
matters related to human population than Sheldon Segal has. Pioneer
in contraceptive research and developer of Norplant, Segal has
orchestrated many of the international clinical trials of new
contraceptives in the last quarter century. In this one volume
Segal examines how population factors impact critical scientific
elements of human affairs: contraception, family planning,
environmental degradation, climate change, food and fresh water
supply, and the threat of newly emerging diseases. As we follow
Segal from meetings with heads of state and foreign ministers
through to his impassioned, grassroots efforts to secure suitable
funds for impoverished countries, we gain a behind-the-scenes
perspective on how individuals and nations juggle humanitarian and
scientific concerns with political agendas. Informed at every turn
by Segal's keen intelligence and humane values,
Human population growth has been a topic of speculation and
spirited debate since the English economist Thomas Malthus
predicted that population will increase faster than the food
supply, with catastrophic results. Today, even as fertility rates
decline on a global scale, relentless increases in population and
other population-driven factors threaten not only the food supply,
but also the stability of entire regions of the world. No single
individual has contributed more to our understanding of scientific
matters related to human population than Sheldon Segal has. Pioneer
in contraceptive research and developer of Norplant, Segal has
orchestrated many of the international clinical trials of new
contraceptives in the last quarter century. In this one volume
Segal examines how population factors impact critical scientific
elements of human affairs: contraception, family planning,
environmental degradation, climate change, food and fresh water
supply, and the threat of newly emerging diseases. As we follow
Segal from meetings with heads of state and foreign ministers
through to his impassioned, grassroots efforts to secure suitable
funds for impoverished countries, we gain a behind-the-scenes
perspective on how individuals and nations juggle humanitarian and
scientific concerns with political agendas. Informed at every turn
by Segal's keen intelligence and humane values,Under The Banyan
Tree
Under The Banyan
Tree skillfully blends engaging narrative with history and
analysis, providing a dramatic and all-encompassing portrait of
this most basic of human concerns.
skillfully blends engaging narrative with history and
analysis, providing a dramatic and all-encompassing portrait of
this most basic of human concerns.