Description
Book Synopsis**A SUNDAY TIMES MUST-READ**
''Riveting and vitally important'' - Steven Pinker
''A gripping narrative of a world on the cusp of profound change'' - Anjana Ahuja, New Statesman
Empty Planet offers a radical, 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 ourse
Trade Review
A fascinating study -- David Goodhart * Sunday Times *
A bold thesis, but the authors are convincing . . . this briskly readable book demands urgent attention -- Sarah Ditum * Mail on Sunday *
The "everything you know is wrong" genre has become tedious, but this book is riveting and vitally important. With eye-opening data and lively writing, Bricker and Ibbitson show that the world is radically changing in a way that few people appreciate -- Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of The Better Angels of Our Nature and Enlightenment Now
[Bricker and Ibbitson] have written a sparkling and enlightening guide to the contemporary world of fertility as small family sizes and plunging rates of child-bearing go global. -- Paul Morland * Globe and Mail *
Bricker and Ibbitson work their way around the globe in pacey, sometimes breathless journalistic prose, although their argument is refreshingly clear and well balanced . . . -- Robert Mayhew * Literary Review *
The authors combine a mastery of social-science research with enough journalistic flair to convince fair-minded readers of a simple fact: fertility is falling faster than most experts can readily explain, driven by persistent forces . . . Empty Planet succeeds as a long-overdue skewering of population-explosion fearmongers -- Lyman Stone * Wall Street Journal *
A highly readable, controversial insight into a world rarely thought about - a world of depopulation under ubiquitous urbanisation -- George Magnus, author of The Age of Aging and Red Flags: Why Xi's China is in Jeopardy
While the global population is swelling well over 7.5 billion people today, birth rates have nonetheless already begun dropping around the world. Past population declines have historically been driven by natural disasters or disease - the Toba supervolcano, Black Death or Spanish Flu - but this coming slump will be of our own demographic making. In this fascinating and thought-provoking book, Bricker and Ibbitson compellingly argue why by the end of this century the problem won't be overpopulation but a rapidly shrinking global populace, and how we might have to adapt -- Professor Lewis Dartnell, author of The Knowledge: How to Rebuild our World from Scratch
To get the future right we must challenge our assumptions, and the biggest assumption so many of us make is that populations will keep growing. Bricker and Ibbitson deliver a mind-opening challenge that should be taken seriously by anyone who cares about the long-term future - which, I hope, is all of us -- Dan Gardner, author of Risk and co-author of Superforecasting
Thanks to the authors' painstaking fact-finding and cogent analysis, [Empty Planet] offers ample and persuasive arguments for a re-evaluation of conventional wisdom * Booklist *
Warnings of catastrophic world overpopulation have filled the media since the 1960s, so this expert, well-researched explanation that it's not happening will surprise many readers . . . delightfully stimulating * Kirkus Reviews *
Arresting . . . lucid, trenchant and very readable . . . a stimulating challenge to conventional wisdom * Publishers Weekly *
A riveting travelogue that covers some of the most interesting places across the world -- Jinoy Josep * Business Line *
The beauty of this book is that it links hard-to-grasp global trends to the easy to-understand individual choices being made all over the world today . . . a gripping narrative of a world on the cusp of profound change -- Anjana Ahuja * New Statesman *
An ambitious reimagining of our demographic future -- Doug Bock Clark * New York Times *
