The Center for Global Sustainability is pleased to welcome Alok Bhargava to the Spring 2019 CGS Forums.
Bhargava will be presenting on “Climate Change, Demographic Pressures and Global Sustainability”. This article emphasizes the need for broader approaches for formulating policies for mitigating the effects of climate change especially in the contexts of agricultural decisions, population health, and migration. Constraints imposed by rapid population growth in developing countries for achievement of Sustainable Development Goals are discussed and evidence is presented on “unwanted” fertility from India. Second, comparisons are made for India during 2002-2016 for average well depths in 495 districts and terrestrial water storage anomalies assessed via GRACE satellites for 274 1x1 degree grids using estimated parameters from dynamic random effects models; effects of population growth for groundwater depletion are underscored. Lastly, migration patterns especially of the highly educated from 39 countries to OECD countries during 2000-2010 are analyzed using dynamic random effects models and total fertility rates were significantly associated with higher migration rates for the highly educated. Implications of the empirical evidence for enhancing global sustainability are discussed.
Alok Bhargava is a professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. He studied economics and econometrics at the London School of Economics. Before joining the School of Public Policy, Bhargava was a full professor of economics at the University of Houston. He received his Ph.D. in econometrics from the London School of Economics. Bhargava has been publishing on important aspects of food policy and population health in several countries. He is an associate editor of the journal Economics and Human Biology. His ability to move between various disciplines has been described as "polymath powers".