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
One of Britain's most prolific and entertaining science writers
--The Sunday Times, January 31, 2010
This very readable book is a hopeful counterblast to the misanthropic doom-mongering that dominates much of the population debate, and I finished it with a smile on my face ... Pearce's celebration of humanity makes this book a joy.
--BBC Focus Magazine
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, March 10, 2010
I judge books by how dog-eared they are when I finish them and whether I buy copies to press into the hands of colleagues and friends. This book soars in both categories.I've been active in population politics and recently wrote about the subject in my own book (Whole Earth Discipline). I wish to hell I'd had Pearce's book in hand when I was writing, because he produces no end of important news on the subject, including the deep streak of eugenic wrong theory that has nearly poisoned the subject ever since Malthus. (Applause to HG Wells for seeing through the pious racism back when everyone thought it was obvious truth.)
This is a great book on a crucial subject.
--Stewart Brand, author of 'Whole Earth Discipline'
Please try to find out what's really happening in the world before deciding to "do something about it". To this end, [you] could do no better than buy a copy of 'Peoplequake'.
--Independent, 25 May 2010