Caring for the future - Independent Commission on Population and Quality of Life

This timely, ground-breaking report examines the challenges that face all countries, both rich and poor, in the last years of the century. There is a growing human crisis, as families and communities encounter the pressures of global competition, migration, and reductions in public spending, as well as an environmental crisis, with the combined explosion of population and consumption threatening the stability of our oceans and climate.;The Independent Commission on Population and Quality of Life, headed by Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo, former Prime Minister of Portugal, outlines bold goals to confront these crises. Its controversial report places women at the centre of development, and caring at the centre of public policy, arguing that there must be a new focus on sustainable quality of life in order to slow population growth and reduce our impact on the environment.;The members of the Commission bring leadership and experience at an international level in politics, health, development, environment and science. Edited by Paul Harrison, author of the bestselling Inside the Third World , the report contains powerful personal testimonies from regional hearings of the commission in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Russia.;The commissioners behind the report are:;Monique B 'egin, Ruth Cardoso, Karina Constantino-David, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Maria Anna Knothe, Bernard Kouchner, Vina Mazumdar, Hanan Mikhail-Ashrawi, Taro Nakayama, Olusegun Obasanjo, Jan Pronk, Pu Shan, Augusto Ramirez-Ocampo, Juan Somavia, Aminata Traor 'e, Beate Weber, Anders Wijkman, Alexander N. Yakovlev.;This book is intended for policy-makers; members of pressure groups concerned with Third World, environment, and feminist issues; social scientists; students following courses on population, human development, environment, women's studies.