The Population Bomb

Figuring the Population Bomb traces the genealogy of twentieth-century demographic �facts� that created a mathematical panic about a looming population explosion. This narrative was popularized in the 1970s in Paul Ehrlich�s best-selling book The Population Bomb, which pathologized population growth in the Global South by presenting a doomsday scenario of widespread starvation resulting from that growth. Carole McCann uses an archive of foundational texts, disciplinary histories, participant reminiscences, and organizational records to reveal the gendered geopolitical grounds of the specialized mathematical culture, bureaucratic organization, and intertextual hierarchy that gave authority to the concept of population explosion. These demographic theories and measurement practices ignited the population �crisis� and moved nations to interfere in women�s reproductive lives. Figuring the Population Bomb concludes that mid-twentieth-century demographic figures remain authoritative to this day in framing the context of transnational feminist activism for reproductive justice.

'Building the Population Bomb' carefully examines how the rise of the world's human population came to be understood as problematic by scientists and governments across the globe. It challenges our assumption of population growth as inherently problematic by demonstrating how it is our anxieties over population growth - and not population growth itself - that have detracted from the pursuit of economic, environmental, and reproductive justice.

Many scholars, writers, activists and policy-makers have linked growth in population to environmental degradation, especially catastrophic climate change. In the last few years, however, a number of writers and academics have documented significant improvements in human wellbeing, pointing to longer lifespans, improved health, abundant resources and a general improvement in the environment. Population Bombed! addresses the main shortcomings of arguments advanced by both population control advocates and optimistic writers, explaining how economic prosperity and a cleaner environment are the direct results of both population growth and humanity's increased use of fossil fuels and showing how campaigns against the spread of fossil fuels will cause misery in the developing world, fuel poverty in advanced economies, and will inevitably wreak havoc on the natural world.

Cities out of control.

From the authors of the bestselling The Big Shift, a provocative argument that the global population will soon begin to decline, dramatically reshaping the social, political, and economic landscape. For half a century, statisticians, pundits, and politicians have warned that a burgeoning planetary population will soon overwhelm the earth's resources. But a growing number of experts are sounding a different kind of alarm. Rather than growing exponentially, they argue, the global population is headed for a steep decline. Throughout history, depopulation was the product of catastrophe: ice ages, plagues, the collapse of civilizations. This time, however, we're thinning ourselves deliberately, by choosing to have fewer babies than we need to replace ourselves. In much of the developed and developing world, that decline is already underway, as urbanization, women's empowerment, and waning religiosity lead to smaller and smaller families. In Empty Planet, Ibbitson and Bricker travel from South Florida to Sao Paulo, Seoul to Nairobi, Brussels to Delhi to Beijing, drawing on a wealth of research and firsthand reporting to illustrate the dramatic consequences of this population decline--and to show us why the rest of the developing world will soon join in. They find that a smaller global population will bring with it a number of benefits: fewer workers will command higher wages; good jobs will prompt innovation; the environment will improve; the risk of famine will wane; and falling birthrates in the developing world will bring greater affluence and autonomy for women. But enormous disruption lies ahead, too. We can already see the effects in Europe and parts of Asia, as aging populations and worker shortages weaken the economy and impose crippling demands on healthcare and social security. The United States is well-positioned to successfully navigate these coming demographic shifts--that is, unless growing isolationism and anti-immigrant backlash lead us to close ourselves off just as openness becomes more critical to our survival than ever before. Rigorously researched and deeply compelling, Empty Planet offers a vision of a future that we can no longer prevent--but one that we can shape, if we choose.