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This paper, one in a series of occasional publications, discusses trends in food production and population growth, emphasizing how environmental quality will be affected. The series is intended to increase understanding of the interrelationships between population growth and socioeconomic and cultural patterns throughout the world, and to communicate this understanding to scholars and policy makers. This publication includes a discussion of the following: (1) Land Resources and Productive Capacity; (2) Water Resources and Water Quality; (3) Energy and Food Production; (4) Fertilizers and Soil Nutrients; (5) Pest Management; (6) Organic Residues from Agriculture and Food Processing; (7) Threats to Ecological Stability; (8) Trade-Offs: Environmental Quality, Food Production, and Costs; and (9) The Role of Population Growth. (Author/RM)

We are now at a stage in human global development in which the continuous review and assessment of the long-range future implications of our past and present actions becomes crucially important for the survival of human society. This report includes a synoptic view of world trends and alternative futures. The first and major portion of the publication discusses world trends including both long-term and short-term changes: (1) Evolutionary Intervention; (2) Physical Extension; (3) Conceptual and Social Expansion; (4) Major Technological Change Events; (5) Population; (6) Urban Growth; (7) Energy; (8) Industrial Development and Natural Resources; (9) Food; (10) Material Disparity between Advanced and Lesser Developed Nations; (11) The World Economy; and (12) the Political Climate. The second part of the document discusses aspects of alternative futures in terms of what we ought to do. (Author/RM)

Man and nature is the theme of this resource paper which is part of a series designed to supplement existing texts and to fill a gap between significant research in geography and readily accessible materials. The approach followed in the paper is loosely dialectical: the intent is to understand man and nature by posing one concept against the other. The paper begins with definitions, setting nature and man side by side. Then man, as a biological organism, subject to nature, is contrasted with man as agent for change, subduing nature. Next, the theory of how man structures his world is taken up, showing how man arranges elements and events of nature to conform to his own sense of order. The consequences of man -made schemata imposed on nature are noted. Lastly, the solution to the problem of a deteriorating environment and its threat to livelihood and social harmony is measured for success in terms of improvements in the means of food production which allow rapid gains in population. Concluding remarks emphasize the open-ended nature of the original theme of man and nature. A bibliography is included. (Author/KSM)