With his usual clarity and dash Fred Pearce brings us the best news we've heard in 10,000 years - that the human population should soon level out, at a number that should be quite manageable; and some of the problems that may seem so dire in truth are assets - including the rise in average age and the increase in migration.
This isn't wishful thinking - it's hard science. And it changes everything. * Colin Tudge *
Peoplequake is a debate-shaping book. Sobre, fascinating, it redraws the boundaries of the population debate. Pearce points out that the Earth could adequately meet the needs of a bigger population, but only once natural resources are shared more equally and managed using ecological
principles. The population bomb would defuse itself even quicker if we tackled over-consumption by the rich instead of fretting about the poor having children. This brilliant book's insights could save many lives and stop many more from suffering.
* Andrew Simms, Policy Director at the New Economics Forum *
What a wonderfully rich and humane book! As a generation of newly-empowered women sweeps away our wrongheaded Malthusian nightmare, Fred Pearce demonstrates persuasively that the end of the population surge may well usher in a new era of ethnic tolerance, increased global integration and a period of kinder and more nurturing governance. * Ross Gelbspan, author of THE HEAT IS ON and BOILING POINT *
Fearless and well-informed; every paragraph crackles. Pearce evokes past and present with vivid detail and
startlingly coherent insight. * Jesse H. Ausubel, Director of the Program for the Human Environment and Senior Research Associate at The Rockefeller University *
This is a well written and important book ... we highly recommend (Fred Pearce's) book - everyone should be grateful that he wrote it * New Scientist *
