Synopses & Reviews
A leading environmental writer looks at the unexpected effects—and possible benefits—of a shrinking, graying population
Is overpopulation the most important environmental issue of our time? Already widely covered on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, CNN’s Amanpour, and NPR’s The Brian Lehrer Show, The Coming Population Crash begs to differ: half the world’s women are now having two children or fewer—in developing countries as well as in rich ones. Fred Pearce chronicles the troubling history of efforts to contain the demographic explosion, and then he dives into the environmental, social, and economic effects of our surprising demographic future: a shrinking, graying population; mass migrations; and, just maybe, a wiser world.
Synopsis
A leading environmental writer looks at the unexpected effects—and possible benefits—of a shrinking, graying population
Over the last century, the world’s population quadrupled and fears of overpopulation flared, with baby booms blamed for genocide and terrorism, and overpopulation singled out as the primary factor driving global warming. Yet, surprisingly, it appears that the population explosion is past its peak—by mid-century, the world’s population will be declining for the first time in over seven hundred years. In The Coming Population Crash, veteran environmental writer Fred Pearce reveals the dynamics behind this dramatic shift and describes the environmental, social, and economic effects of our surprising demographic future.
About the Author
Fred Pearce is an award-winning former news editor at
New Scientist. Currently its environmental and development consultant, he has also written for
Audubon,
Popular Science,
Time, the
Boston Globe, and
Natural History, and writes a regular column for the
Guardian. He has been honored as UK environmental journalist of the year, among his other awards. His many books include
When the Rivers Run Dry, With Speed and Violence(Beacon / 8573-8 / $16.00 pb)
, and
Confessions of an Eco-Sinner (Beacon / 8595-0 / $16.00 pb). Pearce lives in England.
Table of Contents
Preface Introduction
Part One Malthusian Nightmares
1 A Dark and Terrible Genius
2 The Road to Skibbereen
3 Saving the White Man
Part Two Rise of the Population Controllers
4 An Ornithologist Speaks
5 The Contraceptive Cavalry
6 Three Wise Men
7 Six Dollars a Snip
8 Green Revolution
9 One Child
Part Three Implosion
10 Small Towns in Germany
11 Winter in Europe
12 Russian Roulette
Part Four The Reproductive Revolution
13 Sisters
14 Sex and the City
15 Singapore Sling
16 Missing Girls
17 Where Men Still Rule
Part Five Migrants
18 Waving or Drowning?
19 Migrant Myths
20 Footloose in Asia
21 God’s Crucible
Part Six Reaching The Limits
22 The Tigers and the Bulge
23 Footprints on a Finite Planet
24 Feeding the World
25 Slumdogs Arise
Part Seven Older, Wiser, Greener
26 The Age of the Old
27 Silver Lining
28 Peak Population and Beyond
Notes on Sources
Index