BOOK REVIEW: The Coming Population Crash: and Our Planet's Surprising Future.
By Fred Pearce, Beacon Press, 2010, Hardcover, 277 pages, $26.95
At first blush "The Coming Population Crash" reads like every non-fiction reader's worst nightmare: an author who doesn't know what he's talking about and says it badly. Sort of like a high school debater whose notes just blew off the podium. After reading the entire book I'm willing to admit the author has some valid points to make. But I still think he's missing a few three-by-five cards.
Fred Pearce is no newbie when it comes to environmental science writing. His earlier works such as "When the Rivers Run Dry" and "Confessions of an Eco-sinner," as well as his regular column for The Guardian newspaper, have established him as one whose concern for the environment is acute.
So it is remarkable, as someone who writes about pollution, environmental degradation and resource depletion that he should state overpopulation is not a problem we need worry about. "Half the world's women are having two children or fewer