Main entry:

Bricker, Darrell Jay, 1961- author.

Title & Author:

Empty planet : the shock of global population decline / Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson.

Edition:

Hardcover edition.

Publication:

[Toronto] : Signal, an imprint of McClelland & Stewart, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited, 2019.
©2019

Description:

288 pages ; 24 cm

Notes:
"Published simultaneously in the United States of America by Crown, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York"--Title page verso.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
A brief history of population -- Malthus and sons -- The greying of Europe -- Asia: the price of miracles -- The economics of babies -- The Africa question -- Shutting down the factory in Brazil -- Push and pull migration -- The Elephant rises, the Dragon declines -- The second American century -- Cultural extinction in an age of decline -- The Canadian solution -- What lies ahead.
Issued also in electronic format.

Summary:

"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."-- Publisher's website.

ISBN:

9780771050886 (hardcover)
0771050887 (hardcover)

Subject:

Demographic transition.
Population Social aspects.
Population Economic aspects.
Transition démographique.
Démographie sociale.
Population Aspect économique.
Population.
population.

Added entries:

Ibbitson, John, author.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 304652
Call No.: BIB 250310
Status: Available