For generally optimistic forecasts across multiple issue areas, see Kahn, Brown, and Martel (1976), Simon (1981), and Bailey (1995).
More pessimistic literature often begins with the interaction between population and food, much as did Malthus (1798). For pessimistic forecasts across multiple issue areas based on a model, see Meadows, et al (1972 and 1992). See also the annual Worldwatch Institute volumes on the State of the World, under the leadership of Lester Brown (e.g. 1996). See also the widely-read article by Robert Kaplan (1994) on “The Coming Anarchy.” Kaplan points to conditions in Africa as a precursor of more global problems. Paul Kennedy (1993) turned his earlier attention from rise and fall of great powers to environmental issues, landing somewhat tentatively in the pessimistic camp.
As an offshoot of the pessimistic literature, Shaw and Adibe (1995-96) review perspectives on the future for the critical continent of Africa, noting how pessimism concerning the continentfuture has given rise to the “recolonization” prescriptions.