Aging

In this paper, the authors introduced a new indicator of human wellbeing called “Years of good Life” (YoGL). This indicator builds on the length of life (i.e. average life expectancy), but since mere survival is not considered enough also incorporates four central constituents of human wellbeing: being out of absolute poverty, enjoying physical and cognitive health, and stating subjective life satisfaction above a minimal level.

Over the past two centuries Earth’s human population has doubled, and doubled again, and nearly doubled yet again, increasing from 1 billion to over 7.6 billion people. This huge increase is at the root of grave global environmental problems, from climate change to mass species extinction. With help from a generous grant from the Global Challenges Foundation, The Overpopulation Project studies the environmental impacts of overpopulation and explores humane policies to end population growth around the world.

To explore how those in regional Australian coastal communities have coped with repeated natural disasters, focussing on the experience of independent-living older adults, the study used an exploratory, mixed-method, and phenomenological approach, an array of non-probability snowballing techniques to seek participation from residents aged 65 years or more, and from emergency services officers, disaster managers, and community health care providers located in regional communities affected by Cyclone Larry (2006) and Cyclone Yasi (2011).