ABSTRACT
The soil, deprived of organic matter, loses fertility and the ability to hold water-and the desert expands. If the fertility and mortality rates projected for 2000 were to continue unchanged into the twenty-first century, the world's population would reach 10 billion by 2030. Environmental deterioration caused by large populations creates living conditions that make reductions in fertility difficult to achieve; all the while, continuing population growth increases further the pressures on the environment and land. Unless nations collectively and individually take bold and imaginative steps toward improved social and economic conditions, reduced fertility, better management of resources, and protection of the environment, the world must expect a troubled entry into the twenty-first century. Soil erosion will have removed, on the average, several inches of soil from croplands all over the world. Desertification may have claimed a significant fraction of the world's rangeland and cropland.
