Peoplequake
  • Published: 1 July 2010
  • ISBN: 9781409094227
  • Imprint: Transworld Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 352

Peoplequake

Mass Migration, Ageing Nations and the Coming Population Crash

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EBook
1 Jul 2010
Paperback
1 Apr 2011
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A groundbreaking book that reveals the truth about population levels, and where they will take us in the future.

Wherever we look, population is the driver of the most toxic issues on the political agenda. But the population bomb is being defused. Half the world's women are having two children or fewer. Within a generation, the world's population will be falling. And we will all be getting very old.

So should we welcome the return to centre stage of the tribal elders? Or is humanity facing a fate worse than environmental apocalypse?

Brilliant, heretical and accessible to all, Fred Pearce takes on the matter that is fundamental to who we are and how we live, confronting our demographic demons.
  • Published: 1 July 2010
  • ISBN: 9781409094227
  • Imprint: Transworld Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 352
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About the author

Fred Pearce

The Times described Fred Pearce recently as one of Britain's finest science writers. An author and journalist based in London, he has reported on environment, popular science and development issues from over 60 countries over the past 20 years, specialising in global environment issues. He is the environment and development consultant for the New Scientist and writes regularly for the Daily Telegraph, the Guardian, the Independent the Times Higher Education Supplement and Country Life. In the US he has written for the Boston Globe, Audubon Magazine, Foreign Policy, Seed, Popular Science and Time and has written reports and extended journalism for WWF, the UN Environment Programme, the Red Cross, UNESCO, the World Bank and the UK Environment Agency. He is syndicated in Japan, Australia and elsewhere and his books have been translated into at least ten languages, including French, German, Portuguese, Japanese and Spanish.

He was voted BEMA Environment Journalist of the Year in 2001 and has been short-listed for the same award in 2000, 2002 and 2003. He is a past recipient of the Peter Kent Conservation Book Award and the TES Junior Information Book Award.

He is a regular broadcaster on radio and TV, and has given public lectures on all six continents in the past two years.

'Fred is one of the few people that understand the world as it really is' - James Lovelock, scientist

'[Fred is] one of my heroes' - Rt. Hon John Gummer MP, former UK environment secretary

Praise for The Landgrabbers:

'Brilliant: Fred Pearce has lifted the lid on an issue that has yet to register with most people. Anyone who cares about the fate of the planet should read this.' Chris Mullin


Fred's books include: The Landgrabbers, Peoplequake, Deep Jungle, When the Rivers Run Dry, The Last Generation, Confessions of an Eco Sinner and Ian and Fred's Big Green Book for children.

portrait photo of Fred Pearce

Also by Fred Pearce

Our Planet
Confessions of an Eco Sinner
The Landgrabbers
Deep Jungle
The Last Generation
See all

Praise for Peoplequake

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

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

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

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

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

Super-optimistic ... Even those who disagree should welcome this articulate contribution to a much needed debate.

Clive Cookson, Financial Times