From Resource Scarcity to Ecological Security revisits the findings of “The Global 2000 Report to the President” — commissioned by President Jimmy Carter and released in 1980 — and presents an up-to-date over-view, informed by the earlier projections, of such critical topics as population, water, food, energy, climate change, deforestation, and biodiversity. It examines current environmental trends in order to consider the state of the global environment over the next thirty years and discusses what can be done now to achieve ecological security.

The contributors to From Resource Scarcity to Ecological Security find that the world population will likely continue to level off, but the population decline in many industrialized countries will create new socioeconomic and political problems — including the "reverse demographic shock" of disproportionately large aging populations. Although world food production is likely to increase at a rate that keeps up with population growth, greater demand in China as well as distributional issues will keep significant numbers of people malnourished. In addition to these continuing scarcity issues, ecological insecurity may increase because of new threats that include global warming, loss of biodiversity, bioinvasion, and the rapid worldwide spread of new diseases. Assessing Limits to Growth not only analyzes the nature of these impending problems but also suggests ways to solve them.

Dennis Pirages is Harrison professor of international environmental politics at the University of Maryland. He is author or editor of fifteen books including, most recently, Global Ecopolitics, Global Technopolitics, Building Sustainable Societies, and Ecological Security: An Evolutionary Perspective on Globalization. He is a lifetime fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and currently co-chair of the Board of the World Future Society.

Ken Cousins is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland. His dissertation centers on nonstate, market-based policies to promote sustainability, with a case study focusing on the certification of forest management systems in the Chilean forest products industry. He is a member of the International Studies Association, the International Ecological Economics Association, and the Forest Stewards Guild.

Kali-Ahset Amen is a research assistant at Population Action International, holding a BA in African regional studies from Columbia University and an MPhil in environmental management from the University of Cape Town.

Eldon Boes is director of energy analysis for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Richard Cincotta is an ecologist and a senior research associate at Population Action International.

Amy Coen is president and CEO of Population Action International, a nongovernmental organization committed to advancing universal access to family planning and related health services, and to educational and economic opportunities, especially for girls and women.

Marc J. Cohen is a research fellow and special assistant to the director general at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington, D.C.

Ken Conca is director of the Harrison Program on the Future Global Agenda and an associate professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland.

Heather Conley has been deputy assistant secretary, U.S. Department of State for European and Eurasian Affairs since September 2001.

Gary Cook is senior science writer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), where he has worked since 1979.

Chester Cooper is the deputy director, special programs for the Environment and Health Sciences Division of the Pacific Northwestern National Laboratory.

Robert Engelman is vice president for research at Population Action International. He is author of more than a dozen reports on global demography and its connection to specific renewable natural resources, and to community development.

David Inouye is director of the University of Maryland’s graduate program in Sustainable Development and Conservation Biology and a faculty member in the Department of Biology.

Patricia Marchak is professor emeritus of anthropology and sociology at The University of British Columbia.

Jacob Park is assistant professor of business and public policy at Green Mountain College in Vermont, specializing in the teaching and research of community-based sustainable development, global environment and business strategy, NGOs/global governance, and corporate social responsibility.

Warren Phillips is professor emeritus of government and politics at the University of Maryland. His research interests include international development, international political economy, the information revolution, and environmental politics.

Paul Runci is an independent consultant in Kensington, Maryland. He has worked as an energy and environmental policy researcher for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, with the Joint Global Change Research Institute, and the Aspen Institute.

Matthias Ruth is the director of the Environmental Policy Program at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Affairs and an associate professor of environmental economics and policy.