Best Hope for a Future on Earth?, Our Last

This important book is a companion to his book The World Without Us which focused on how nature would recover if human beings were removed from the global picture. In "Countdown" Wiesman travels around the world, from the Mideast to the U.S., looking at how agriculture, population, climate, and other factors are interacting to form the upcoming Malthusian nightmare (our technology and contrary to what some think, the Green Revolution just kicked the can down the road). He tries to look at various scenarios for possible solutions, all of which will take a series of steps that would take international effort and cooperation that would make the race for space look like Amateursville. The odds are not good, but one must try. For one thing, it would take a 1 child per couple international policy for a century or so, along with perfect coordination of agriculture and food programs. Possible? Yes. Likely? What do you think? But he does find small moments of realistic hope. For example, he visits Wat Asokaram Monastery, in Thailand, and talks to Ajaan Boonku, a Theravāda Buddhist monk, who says, "We don't know if the end for humans nears. We know it may come, so the mind must be ready. Overuse of this world by people brings disaster -- floods, global warming. But it's not the end of the Earth, even if it is our own. Nature will move forward, beyond us. But for now...it is a good idea for us to save trees. It helps" (p. 359). Everyone should read this book.

In world that has too many people, we often encounter numerous warnings predicting a terrible future for humankind. Many of these are described in the recent 2013 book, Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth? It's a book that grabs our fear of future problems and appeals to our love of our planet, as it attempts to discover realistic solutions.

The author visited a couple of dozen countries as he explored four vital questions. How many people can live on the planet? What can we do to limit population growth? What other planetary resources and species are necessary for human survival? And, can we develop an economy that doesn't depend upon human growth and increased consumption?

Written with remarkable clarity, the author presents intermixed stories of scientists and world leaders pursuing a sustainable human future. Some of the simple answers involve reducing poverty, thirst, and hunger through improved education and family planning throughout the world.

The author, Alan Weisman, is an American journalist who has written several books and won numerous international awards. His is known for his 2007 book The World Without Us, which is a post-human description of the world. This book was ranked #1 on Time magazine's top 10 non-fiction books of year. I predict that his recent book, Countdown has the same potential.

As the world approaches ten billion humans later this century, Countdown addresses how humans can survive. This book raises profound concerns about our future survival and should be required reading for all world leaders.

"Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?" by Alan Weisman is a book that I consider a Must Read. Overpopulation is an issue I've been concerned about since the 1970's. The constant increasing numbers of people born each year concerns me even more. Weisman's well researched work shows evidence of how overpopulation is affecting our planet and the need to limit population growth. How many more people can this planet sustain or have we already reach critical mass? We're running out of land for wild animals to live and roam, to build homes and businesses, to grow food. The oceans are being depleted of fish. There are too many cars on the road and too much trash. We are living longer with no curtail in the number of babies being born.

This is a global problem not one for a few countries or groups of people. The book doesn't focus on one issue but several. If you reading it makes you uncomfortable or it frightens you, it should.

It's a very hard hitting topic that many people find uncomfortable to think or talk about let alone admit they need to take responsibility for. This is a topic we need to talk to our children and grandchildren about. It's a topic we need to discuss with friends and neighbors.

"Countdown" is a well written book with good flow and I found it engaging.

Beyond the interesting stories the author doesn't offer any novel suggestions about how to reduce the growth rate in the population in places where it's growing the fastest. Improving living standards, urbanization, education, women's empowerment will all go someway towards reducing the growth rate. One can easily look up these suggested remedies by doing a Google search so there's no need to buy this book if one is looking for solutions. Furthermore, the author's injection of his own opinion towards various conflicts (Israeli-Arab conflict, US policy towards Iran, etc.) detracts from his main point.

Also, I would dispute holding up China's one-child policy as a successful effort in population control. As of today, China has the world's largest population and only India is expected to overtake China in the next one hundred years. China's population is still expected to be over 1 billion by the end of the century. In that regard, China has 'failed' because even a minuscule impact per person will equal a huge impact in totality because of the huge population.

I was introduced to science journalist Alan Weisman’s work with his wonderful book of speculative science, The World without Us. When I read that a follow-up was forthcoming, my interest was immediately piqued. But reading the jacket copy of Countdown didn’t grab me. It’s Weisman’s exploration of the world WITH us. With far too many of us, as population explodes exponentially and this planet faces grave consequences. Obviously, this is as important a subject as any a science writer could possibly tackle, but, frankly, it sounded like a bummer. I passed.

A while later, Alan Weisman came to speak at the San Francisco Public Library. I was thrilled for the opportunity to hear him talk. Truth be told, he’s a surprisingly terrible public speaker, reading his entire speech lifelessly off a lengthy print-out. Still, the lackluster presentation didn’t disguise just how fascinating the subject matter was. The statistics quoted, the anecdotes relayed, were simply staggering! I HAD to read more. Happily, there was a 500 page book waiting to be devoured.

What I’d forgotten when I passed on this book is what a terrific and accessible writer Weisman is. Just as with The World without Us, Weisman looks at the issue from a broad and creative number of angles. The man traveled to every corner of the globe in the process of researching this expansive book. I’m not going to quote a bunch of gee whiz statistics at you in this review. I will simply tell you that the book was as fascinating as it was disquieting. I feel better educated and informed, and I will not quickly dismiss any future subject matter that Mr. Weisman decides to take on.

Those who have followed environmental issues over the last four or five decades already know well the dangers of human overpopulation. Now, as the world teeters on the brink, it’s time to revisit the topic, and Alan Weisman does a good job of doing just that, taking readers on a world tour with anecdotes about how selected countries have either dealt with, or more often, failed to deal with their population issues.

This is a moderately long book, however, and at times I tired of what seemed like an endless litany of third world country after third world country failing to control its population and the dire consequences that have resulted (or will result). Along these lines, the book focuses too much on the Third World, and, except for brief stops in England, Italy, and Japan, there is not enough discussion of the so-called “First World.” For example, other than a few passing references to uncontrolled consumerism in the United States, there is no attempt to quantify how much greater the environmental impact of an average American is compared to the environmental impact of individuals from other countries. (Note that such numbers were presented in 1990’s “The Population Explosion,” by Paul and Anne Ehrlich, and have been cited in some conservation biology textbooks.)

Despite this failure, there are numerous assorted tidbits of interest in this book. These include a discussion of China’s mostly successful “one-child policy” (yet ultimately, not successful enough); the well-known story of Thailand’s “the Condom Man” (a modern day population-control hero); and the eye-opening revelation that modern agriculture is responsible for more greenhouse gasses than “all the factories and power plants together, and more than all our cars, trains, boats, and airplanes combined” (Professor Jon Foley, as quoted by Weisman on p. 425). Although I found the author’s “novelized” presentation overly wordy and distracting, I recommend that everyone read this book. Why? Because this topic has been ignored or seen as taboo outside of professional circles, but it is the main driver of virtually all problems facing the human race. If not dealt with immediately, the collapse of civilization is virtually guaranteed (as noted in somewhat different words by Paul Ehrlich in Weisman’s last chapter).

Author Alan Weisman makes a rational argument in favor of lowering the birthrate so that the planet can survive with a livable environment and a long and healthy population. At the current growth rate of one million people every 4.5 days, we are going to be ten billion by the year 2100. Will there be sufficient resources on the planet to support us? Will global warming leave the planet in disarray with much of coastal cities like New York and much of state of Florida under water? The climate change's 2007 inter-governmental report says that in a worst case scenario of less than two feet rise in water level by the year 2100 will be catastrophic for our world. Hurricane Sandy riding into New York City is a grim reminder of what would happen if the polar ice melts at the current rate, thawing of methane deposits resulting in a global climate change.

The earth can't sustain our current numbers, and that must come down. The author offers a few basic ideas to combat this crisis. How about adapting one child per family policy across nations? There will be only 1.6 billion by the end of this century; the same as in the year 1900. The author has travelled extensively both in United States and foreign countries talking to people about the need to curb birthrate, and surprisingly a large number of people he met or spoke to agree with the problem but disagree with his method.

This is not to cull anyone alive but we need to take control of ourselves, and humanely bring down our numbers, otherwise nature will hand out a pile of pink slips. Watching survival of fittest on Nat Geo channel is interesting, but if it happens to your own species, especially for our grandchildren or great grandchildren, it is not pretty. Television reality shows showing survivalists who hoard food, medicine, clothes, and arming themselves to the teeth in anticipation of full economic/political demise are looking more and more like realists.

1. The World Without Us
2. How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It: Tactics, Techniques, and Technologies for Uncertain Times
3. End of the World Survival Guide : It's Coming... Are You Ready?

How long can the Earth continue to support our current population growth? In Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth, Weisman sets out to answer this question. He does so by visiting more than 20 countries to see what difficulties they face due to overpopulation and what measures, if any, they're taking to solve the problem.

From Israel to England, China to Iran, we see people and countries that are effectively facing their problems or making the problem worse in the name of national security or religion. Weisman does a fantastic job of presenting facts in a compelling and digestible manner. There were several moments in the book where I lost all hope for humanity - the stubbornness and greed of human beings is astounding. But then the author counters the bleak picture with one of hope, in the form of a country or community that is making real progress in limiting their population and improving the living conditions of their people. As Gandhi said, "There is enough for everyone's need - but not for everyone's greed."

The task of convincing a population to limit their number of children is daunting, but from reading Weisman's book I'm able to understand what's working and what's not. It seems to me that the best plan of action is to hastily increase the number of young girls receiving an quality education in under-developed countries. Educated girls grow into educated woman who wait to have children and understand the benefits of a smaller family. Nobody loses in this scenario.

Verdict:

I rarely give a book a 5 of 5 stars, but this one is definitely deserving. Please, give it a try.

The book is essentially a collection of human stories from around this world of ours. It demonstrates the paradox of humanity. Individually, face-to-face, we are extraordinary and basically benign social creatures. But lumped together as an planetary force, we are detrimental to the overall environment. To put it succinctly, we are the only species that is cheating population dynamics. We have dug, squeezed, and genetically altered the world around us to prop up an unsustainable society.

In writing this book, Alan Weisman has identified the real environmental crisis of our time. It is not climate change; it is the human population boom. This human population has purchased the collective idea of infinite growth -- grow the economy, grow everything, until...forever? Well, this cannot go on forever. If we hope to preserve anything of cultural value, anything from the human story, we must stop growing and level off to some kind of lasting, sustainable society.

Ethnic conflict is a secondary undercurrent of this book. Frankly, it reminds me of the petty political battles waged every election year. A fractured electorate is convinced that the "other people" are inferior, and if we can only win one more battle, some kind of utopian dream will be realized. What kind of world will we be left with after the last ethnic and political battles are waged? Not the kind of world worth living in, I imagine.

The elephant in the room when we discuss climate change, global warming, is the population issue. It doesn't seem to be addressed as much as it did a few decades back when the billions started to add up, and the Club of Rome warned of Malthusian disasters. But agriculture stayed (mostly) ahead of population, and the religion factions made funding of family planning increasingly hard. Seven million more people every month, and the problem can't be dodged forever.

Alan Weisman is interested in examining the problem through countless tangents and digressions, though never without keeping his explanation of the consequences of the current population expansion (or explosion) in mind. There's a lot of territory covered, and a lot of things for me to look up!

The main barriers to population control are obviously access to family planning, and the ability to function culturally in a way that does not require many children, multiple wives, or religious objections to birth control. Those parts are obvious, but less obvious is how, for example, wealth in China is easing the one child rule, or how the Palestinians view the number of children per household.

An interesting book that ultimately doesn't provide all the (glib) answers that we might want to see but does give us the background to discuss the topic of population with some level of proficiency. Well written, though potentially frustrating to those not in love with the (useful) digression.

This is a comprehensive and well written book that hooks the reader from the very beginning. Its clarity in presenting the current situation is sobering. The creative ways some people have found to deal with the problem are inspiring. It behoves one and all to take heed of what he says and to start addressing the problem and taking action locally and nationally through the politicians that we elect to lead our nation.

A sobering look at earth's problems. The author relates overpopulation to a majority of our problems, in ways that were somewhat new to me. Eg. the nitrogen it takes to create bumper crops is causing pollution in its production. Good book, worth reading.

(NOTE: PLEASE click on read more" to read the entire review!)

I have waited so long for Weisman's follow up to The World Without Us. I was so eager for a book that I could use with my high school juniors and seniors who opt for my Environmental Science course - a book that would explain how all of the issues that they are passionate about, i.e., global warming, climate change, air pollution, water pollution, over fishing et al are rooted in one problem: the human population explosion. If anyone could tell this story, I expected that Alan Weisman could. After all, he had held my sophomores' attention through the conjectural regeneration that followed human demise. I couldn't wait to read his synthesis of the current state of our planet. Alas - this is not the book for my students. In fact, I wonder who the audience for this book will be. I suggest a professional association of editors. I hate to say it, but Countdown is a mess.

You know when you start reading a book, you immediately get a sense of what you're in for? About 10 pages into the book, I saw the flashing yellow lights in my mind's eye. "Uh-oh. This is meandering quite a bit". Weissman starts the book by examining birth rates in that crucible of human existence, the Middle East. In the first seven pages, Weissman recites a historical litany of facts from King Solomon, the Wailing Wall, the 10 commandments, Ramadan, Yasser Arafat's "biology bomb", ultra orthodox haredi, Egyptian bondage of the Jews, miraculous plagues that related God to nature, Zionism and Jesus' miracle wit loaves and fishes. This leads up to the first of a new set of Four Questions (think Passover haggadah) which is "How many people can their land really hold?" This is a good fundamental, relevant question to ask. The problem is that the process of getting to the question (never mind the answer itself which makes references housing, food, population densities, the Diaspora, linguistics, and the Talmud, in all of 5 (!) pages) is exhausting.

And so it goes. Encyclopedic research is thrown together in a somewhat haphazard fashion that is more confusing than enlightening. Folks who have some background in environmental science, or current events, will no doubt make the connections in their mind. I imagine that others may find this book a tough slog, thinking where is this all going? History, religions, politics, NGOs, commerce - it's all interesting. And one realizes that all these ingredients, from the human marketplace, come together in a gumbo that is killing our planet, and us. What it lacks is a unifying voice, an explicitly stated narrative to hold it all together. As it stands, the individual ever changing voices, stories, historic references, and descriptions become exhausting to read after awhile. I got through the whole book, but I had to limit my reading to 20 page sections at a time.

Obviously, Weisman is trying to lead us to the realization that human population increases have increased dramatically since the mid 19th century, and that the rate of increase is pushing us past the point of sustainability. Weissman makes the point that we may not have the time required to do anything about it at this point.

One slogs through this book hoping to glean something from this eclectic assortment of facts, anecdotes, and tropes that will provide some additional insight about what we can do, or where we are heading. On and on it goes, introducing stories about Pontifical councils, Jane Goodal and oil companies, Malthus - always Malthus -and numerous NGOs. Then the reader hits paragraphs like this one:

"In the mechanics of photosynthesis, wheat and rice are known as C3 plants - which means that the intitial building-block hydrocarbon molecules they make from the CO2 they inhale (sic) have three carbon carbon atoms. Corn and sorghum, which evolved later, are C4 plants. At a CIMMYT sister institution, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, plant geneticists are trying to rearrange the cell structure in rice leaves to kick it up from C3 to C4, which could raise its photosynthetic efficiency up to 50%. If they're successful, CIMMYT hopes that the same ploy will work with wheat. But IRRI scientists expect that it will take at least twenty years to produce commercially viable C4 rice. They also have another goal: as well as increase yields, they want to hot-rod rice with enough energy to fix its own airborne nitrogen, to lower or eliminate its dependency on synthetic fertilizer's costly fossil-fuel feedstock. Adapting any technology IRRI produces to wheat could take even longer, which doesn't help the immediate problem of feeding more Pakistanis before food wars erupt".

As a biology teacher, I take it slowly, and understand this paragraph (even the references to hot-roding, let alone the idea of fixing airborne nitrogen) but I wonder what the casual reader makes of all this? And so it goes. Acronyms - lots of acronyms - the aforementioned CIMMYT: OPT, OBE, BNP, HUGOS, CTPH, USAID, PHE, RH/FP, BMCA, CREHP, UNFPA - the list goes on and on. One brief quotation in book reads "USAID early recognized the lack of access to RH/FP services in the BMCA, and for close to a decade it funded CARE to implement CREHP in the area".

Countdown should have been mesmerizing. Instead, it's tiring. It is full of interesting, related stories. Stories about the impact of increasing populations, Mexican orphanages, forced sterilizations on women in Puerto Rico (certainly not advocated by Weisman) and their impact on the population of that island. Stories about teen prostitution in Mumbai. Stories well known to biologists, such as that of the establishment of the National Park Service, and the Kaibab plateau. This is all interesting relevant stuff. But its presentation in a haphazard, shotgun fashion makes it difficult for a reader to synthesize the meaning, and more importantly, the relevance of each story, each anecdote, and each acronym to Weissman story. The single thread that comes back to a reader's mind is this: "There are too many people. We're doomed". I get it. But when I was 300+ pages into this 400+ page book, I found myself dreading further examples of capitalist exploitation in India and mobilization against Coca Cola's exploitation of that country's groundwater.

Perhaps that's the point. Maybe Weissman wanted to write a volume that would bring it all together in order to take mankind by the shoulders and shake us until we're blue in the face while saying "Don't you get it! Wake up! Do something!"

So, finishing the book I found myself eagerly awaiting the suggestions for actions we could take. After all, the subtitle of the book refers to a "last, best hope for a future on earth". What is that best hope? What small measure we can take part in locally, regionally, nationally to get us off of what appears to be suicidal path? Countdown finishes with a whimper, a gentle and somewhat quaint admonition to "keep everything in reasonable balance" and in the epilogue, Weisman's gentle request to "leave space for our fellow species to do the same". That's it. That's how the book ends. A paragraph to say that the earth "cannot sustain our current numbers", a final warning about sea levels rising ("the only one I've found disputing Dr. Wanless's extreme predictions is a Florida real estate blogger" Weisman states) a re-assurance that "I don't want to cull anyone alive today" and after 400 plus pages, two final sentences advising us to leave more space for others. (oh yes, and birth control would be a good thing too.)

I've read the excerpts the pre-publication reviews. I recognize that Countdown has been deemed an "important" book, and I have no doubt that it is, in that it discusses an important issue. But it meanders. It lacks focus. It's pedantic. More importantly, it lacks a cohesive narrative. There's an ongoing sense of "look what else I found out while onducting my research. (Where, oh where, is the Rachel Carson for this generation who will tell this commanding story with contemporary eloquence and simple power?)

I question who the audience will be for this book. Laypersons? The lecture is too long. Scientists? Too basic. Teachers? Perhaps, in excerpts. Students? They will feel like they are being force fed a book that dulls their passion. It's too bad. There is a good story in all of this. Good stories have beginnings, middles, and ends - a narrative flow - which Countdown lacks. It's episodic, and the episodes often feel unrelated to each other. Their connection is to the big problem we face, and that's not enough to sustain it over the course of 400+ pages. As a result, Countdown becomes tedious, whereas it should have been dramatic and empowering.

Unfortunately, Countdown will not find a permanent place on my bookshelves. To paraphrase Weisman, too many books; I need to leave space for others.

(Note: my advance copy of Countdown did not contain an index, making it difficult to re-locate specific people, organizations, and events written in the text. I assume that this will be taken care of in the final copy.)

BRILLIANTLY written book. One of the most important books I have ever read in my life. I think every citizen of the planet would benefit from reading this book. It is critical to our planet's future, in my opinion, that everyone understand the direction we are headed with exponential population growth and the limits of modern agriculture, the environmental impact of our species, etc. An extensive bibliography is also given for those wanting to review Mr. Weisman's sources.

This book is so informative, and Mr. Weisman's talented writing held my interest to the end. I will recommend this book to everyone I know.

The global population has doubled in my 47 years of living. This growth is the root cause or at least a very significant contributor to almost all the serious problems facing us today. I have never understood why some people find it desirable with an ever increasing human population. Unfortunately the population issue does not attract much attention from the worlds leaders. Except in China but the very sensible one child policy there is rediculed by most western politicians and media. This book is highly recommended to anyone interested in this important subject which deserves much more attention.

The relation between the human population and the actual carrying capacity of the planet is a topic we've been trying hard to ignore. Following on his excellent The World Without Us, Weisman's new book shows how all our looming crises (he lists nine of them) are the more critical the more people there are needing resources in short supply (think water before you think oil) and generating more pollution of land, sea, and atmosphere and wiping out more fellow species. I ended the book with enormous sadness, since the momentum of our economic/political/cultural systems is toward more of the same: " . . . the predominant paradigm of social and economic development remains largely oblivious to the risk of human induced environmental disasters at continental to planetary scales." Stopping this juggernaut short of collapse is hard to imagine, but the starting point clearly is a wake-up call such as Countdown.

What is the optimal population of the earth?

This topic is so large that it bursts through academic disciplines. One turns to numerous branches of science. One looks to statistics. Yet one also knows that any numbers are contingent, far less exact than they may first appear, subject to multiple interpretations.

The question of population unavoidably implicates values. The most intimate spiritual matters are at issue. So, too, values underlay political power in all its multifarious forms.

Many people assert or assume that a certain level of global population is sustainable. Few have sought to isolate the most important questions to be posed in the first instance.

In the audacious book, journalist Alan Weisman has travelled the world posing four questions to interviewees in the range of countries and circumstances:

--"How many people can their land really hold?"

--"If, in order to have an ecosystem robust enough to insure human survival, we have to avoid growing to 10 billion--or even reduce our numbers from the 7 billion we're already at--is there an acceptable, nonviolent way to convince people of all the cultures, religions, nationalities, tribes, and political systems of the world that it's in their best interest to do so?"

--"How much ecosystem is required to maintain human life? Or, what species or ecological processes are essential to our survival?"

--"If a sustainable population for the Earth turns out to be less than the 10 billion we're headed to, or even less than the 7 billion we already number, how do we design an economy for a shrinking population, and then for a stable one--meaning, an economy that can prosper without depending on constant growth?"

The answers are varied, interesting, and sometimes surprising. The journey is worth following and answers merit reflection.

The bottom line that Weisman presents: in the past two centuries humankind has dramatically advanced life expectancy. In many parts of the world, the expectations for the customary number of children have not changed simultaneously. The result: ever increasing numbers of people.

Going forward, is having more people a benefit or a burden to the Earth?

At what point are shared notions of freedom implicated--by the means applied to limit the numbers, or by the consequences of the rising numbers themselves?

There are no simple answers to such questions. Public discussion has been as limited as the need for it is great. 'Countdown' is a valuable contribution to a discussion that merits everyone's earnest attention.

Books like this miss their mark when they are marketed to a consumer audience but maintain a purely academic tone. Alan Weisman avoided that problem and wrote a compelling book about overpopulation that features lots of personal stories that help drive home the strain many countries and individuals are facing when it comes to supporting -- both economically and physically -- a large population, even one that is no longer growing.

It reads a lot like a great magazine article...particularly if you read it in segments, which is what I recommend.

Really a must read for anyone living, breathing, consuming or procreating on this planet. Well researched, and tells a concise tale about how infinite growth on a planet with finite resources isn't possible.

This should be mandatory reading for all high school seniors so that they have a fair understanding of their future if they do not act. As a conservative, I was surprised at how it altered my point of view even though I am old and set in my ways. Ironically, I read this week where Iran is experiencing a baby boom even though they were one of the good news stories in this book.

We should by now be fully aware of the overwhelming challenges facing us. Overpopulation, which heads the list, has been a topic my whole 80 years of life, and it just continues rising.

Hopefully, this is a book that will be read thoughtfully and result in our raising our own voices and work hard for the salvation of our planet. Much has been said in the past, but this is one of the most vivid and action promoting books I have read on the subject. It's a wake up call and an urgent plea which needs to be heeded.

This is a book for all of us, and one to completely open ourselves up to. A must read.

Good communicators know that telling a story is much more effective than slathering with facts. Countdown is chock full of engaging stories. I've never read 430 pages of non-fiction so quickly.

Good thinkers know that anecdotes do not prove assertions. This book is also full of scientific results and reliable facts literally from around the world.

Mr. Weisman visited a huge variety of cultures around the globe to gather information and experiences before writing this book. He found plenty of evidence for a red alert to all of us, and multiple examples of impressive achievements that point to way to possible better paths for the future. He ties together historical events and people in a clear and engaging way. This is a must read, even if you already know a fair amount about the population debate.

This book is an even-handed, fair, calm, and thoughtful look at the way we humans are over-populating the earth, pushing our fellow creatures to the brink of existence. In time, if we don't get control of ourselves, we will push ourselves to the brink, or even over. It is madness to continue the path we're on.

First, I have to say that I absolutely loved "The World Without Us"; however, I had a tough time getting through "Countdown." I was really hoping for a similarly presented text, but found this book to be slightly disorganized and tough to follow. I appreciated the commentary presented and I thought the format with the individualized stories would have been more meaningful to me, but it just did not jive with me. I fully intend to revisit this book at another time and hope to discover meaningfulness that I may have missed this time around.

This would be a great "required reading" for high school students who could then go home & hopefully educate their parents...and parents would listen if they want to leave a living world for their children, grandchildren & everyone else's.

Excellent investigation on the chances for humanity's future covering quality of life, resource shortages and the continuing struggle between species and resources, etc. Many countries are covered in this in-depth approach, not just the U.S. Highly recommended.

Alan Weisman has written another important book however this one is too long. The stories are so long that I lost the point of his stories. His earlier publication, The World Without Us covered more ground with great stories that helped me understand his urgent message. I still recommend The World Without Us, but this book is too slow.

The title is Countdown, that gave me the impression that this would be fast paced, as in a countdown. I enjoy the good scholarship of his work, however if he had shortened the stories I would have a better time following him. I think one hundred pages could be eliminated and this book would be improved. So much space is used to talk about population. This could have been condensed into a shorter message. His work is compelling because it is so comprehensive. I like the book but will not recommend it. Too few folks have the patience to fight through the long stories.

Weisman's exploration of population growth, it's effects, and the ways governments and NGOs work (or do not work) to regulate it is complex and riveting. Never oversimplifying or providing easy answers, he manages to detail multiple perspectives and evoke both alarm and hope in the face of the greatest threat to our lives and our children's lives.

Misplaced blame:- Alan Weisman makes the number of people the issue and talks of keeping families smaller through planning as a solution to global warming. Due to our life style, the main problem is CO2 emissions per capita in developed nations and not large families in developing nations.

Eating Meat Causes Global Warming:- [...]

Note: Canada has 1.63 births per woman (2011), with a population of about 34 million people and in 2008 had 16.4 Annual carbon dioxide emissions [tonnes] per capita.

Uganda has 6.05 births per woman (2011), with population of about 34 million people, and in 2008 had 0.1 Annual carbon dioxide emissions [tonnes] per capita.

So here is a question: "For every one Canadian child born in 2011, how many Ugandan children would it have have taken to
produce the same amount of carbon dioxide emissions?"

If you answered 164, you are right. Note: It would have taken 164 Ugandan births to match the amount of carbon dioxide emissions produced by 1 Canadian child born in 2008. (Simple maths 16.4/0.1 = 164). And as you well know, such is not happening nor is it practical; yet global warming blame still continues to be attributed to a poor woman in a third world
country and her 6 children for the human race extinction we face in a near future.

Another way to look at it - Total population of entire Africa continent is just over 1 billion people or 15% of the world population, but contributes only 3% of total global CO2 annually. If you increased the world population by 15% (i.e, 1billion Africans), you would be increasing global CO2 emission by just another 3%, while in another part of the world - by just increasing the world population by 0.005% (i.e. 34 million Canadians) - it would translate into increasing global CO2 emission by another 8%. May be instead of looking at those poor kids and talking about cutting trees for firewood, why not look at [...]

Here are the facts, the problem in not in numbers, but mainly in the type of "life style":-
[...]

Livestock a major threat to environment: [...]

[...]

Let me hope that Dr. Albert A. Bartlett's presentation will benefited you. [...]

"Blaming large families" especially in developing nations for global warming is not only misleading, but it is also profiling those who have less voice to defend themselves against such negative preconceived stereo tendencies by those who have power to the media and access to policy makers.

From a historical perspective point of view, such misleading unscientific information could lead to very detrimental consequences to those powerless with large families once they are labeled as the major source of our future human extinction.

Requiring African women to have one or two children is calling for extinction of their races: [...]

Once a people's ability to reproduce themselves is viewed as a threat to the global survival of everyone else (yet without scientific proof) and the solution to what is perceived as the a global threat is through controlling their ability to reproduce themselves, at that juncture - we are headed in a very dangerous direction.
As some singer said, "If you don't know your history, you don't know your future" And there are dangers of repeating it. [...]

The book is not scientific, not factual, not corroborated by any research; it has no solution, no logical conclusion and no story line. Very frustrating book as it is hard to understand author’s position and since there is no science behind there is nothing in this whole book that is worth reading or talking about. Yes, third world countries in Africa and Asia are overpopulated; yes religious zealots are a driving force behind explosion of population in the poorest and most uneducated countries. And yes, this book will be read by few people with high degrees and small families as it is who really do not care about another preacher without solutions. Oh, and last, there are so many undeveloped areas in Canada most of the country is not populated, South America is completely undeveloped, miles and miles of Russian are completely barren of people, American wild west has not been touched by civilization; there are plenty of resources and plenty of places that can still be developed and lived in. The book was poorly written and non-conclusive, boring and time wasting reading.