Praise for Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population DeclineĪ bold thesis, but the authors are convincing. Rigorously researched and deeply compelling, EMPTY PLANET offers a vision of a future that we can no longer prevent - but that we can shape, if we choose to. It is about the secularisation of societies and the vital role that immigration has to play in our futures. Captivating and persuasive, it is a story about urbanisation, access to education and the empowerment of women to choose their own destinies. There may be earth-shaking implications on a geopolitical scale as well.ĮMPTY PLANET is a hugely important book for our times.

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 vital social services. 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. 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. In much of the developed and developing world, that decline is already underway, as urbanisation, women's empowerment, and waning religiosity lead to smaller and smaller families. This time, however, we're thinning ourselves deliberately, by choosing to have fewer babies than we need to replace ourselves. Throughout history, depopulation was the product of catastrophe: ice ages, plagues, the collapse of civilizations. Rather than growing exponentially, they argue, the global population is headed for a steep decline. But a growing number of experts are sounding a different kind of alarm. '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.įor half a century, statisticians, pundits and politicians have warned that a burgeoning planetary population will soon overwhelm the earth's resources. 'Riveting and vitally important' - Steven Pinker EMPTY PLANET shows why exactly the opposite will soon be upon us. For half a century, statisticians, pundits and politicians have warned that population growth is spiraling out of control, threatening to overwhelm the earth's resources.

Empty planet book review