No Nonsense Guide to World Population

Vanessa Baird

With world population passing 7 billion and predicted to hit 9 billion by 2050 we are in the grip of a number panic. This book looks at what the numbers mean; why women in most parts of the world are having fewer children; what will happen to our societies as we all live longer; and how having babies relates to climate change.

Contents

• Foreword by David Satterthwaite
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Are too many people being born?
• Chapter 2: A brief history of population
• Chapter 3: Being alive, staying alive – and growing old
• Chapter 4: A woman’s body
• Chapter 5: For richer, for poorer
• Chapter 6: On the move
• Chapter 7: Population and climate change
• Chapter 8: How can we feed nine billion?
• Chapter 9: Wild things
• Conclusion
• Resources
• Index

About the Author

Vanessa Baird has been co-editor at New Internationalist magazine since 1986. Her previous books include, as compiler and editor, Eye to Eye Women and The No-Nonsense Guide to Sexual Diversity.