After the Spike

byDean Spears, Michael Geruso

The Risks of Global Depopulation and the Case for People

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What kind of future do we want?

If we continue as we are, the world’s population will peak within decades – and then suddenly, rapidly decline. It is easy to assume this would be better, for both the planet and those who remain. After the Spike urges us to think again.

In this deeply reasoned and empathetic look at our shrinking world, leading economists Dean Spears and Michael Geruso explain why fewer people make it harder to escape global poverty, disease and injustice – leaving us all worse off. But if we lift the burdens on parents and carers, stabilising the population will go hand in hand with a freer, fairer, healthier and greener world for everyone.

The spike may be coming, but what the world looks like after is still ours to choose.

Persuasive ... After the Spike knocks down assumptions like skittles … Creating a good life, whether that's finding cures for disease or ways to reverse environmental damage, relies on the ideas, work and progress produced by large, interconnected societies … If there's one thing After the Spike leaves us with, it's the impulse to back ourselves

Guardian

About Dean Spears

Dean Spears and Michael Geruso are economists, demographers and associate professors at the University of Texas at Austin. Spears is a founding executive director of r.i.c.e, a nonprofit that works to promote children’s health, growth and survival in rural India. Geruso served as a senior economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President Biden, where he advised on healthcare and population change. Their research on health, population, and climate change has been published in top peer-reviewed journals and featured in publications such as The New York Times, Economist and National Geographic.
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Details
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • ISBN: 9781529939149
  • Length: 320 pages
  • Price: £12.99
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