Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?

by Alan Weisman

  _______. Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change. Champaign-Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1982.

  Cohen, Joel E. How Many People Can the Earth Support? New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1995.

  Connelly, Matthew. Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008.

  Daily, Gretchen C., ed. Nature’s Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems. Washington, DC: Island Press, 1997.

  Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision. New York: United Nations, 2010 (Updated: April 15, 2011).

  Ehrlich, Anne H., and Paul R. Ehrlich. The Dominant Animal: Human Evolution and the Environment. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2008.

  _______. The Population Explosion. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990.

  Ehrlich, Paul R. The Population Bomb. Cutchogue, NY: Buccaneer Books 1997.

  Engelman, Robert. More: Population, Nature, and What Women Want. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2008.

  Foreman, Dave. Man Swarm and the Killing of Wildlife. Durango, CO: Raven’s Eye Press LLC, 2011.

  Gilding, Paul. The Great Disruption: Why the Climate Crisis Will Bring On the End of Shopping and the Birth of a New World. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2011.

  Livi-Bacci, Massimo. A Concise History of World Population. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2012.

  Longman, Phillip. The Empty Cradle: How Falling Birthrates Threaten World Prosperity, and What to Do About It. New York: Basic Books, 2004.

  Lovelock, James. The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning. New York: Basic Books, 2009.

  Malthus, Thomas R. An Essay on the Principle of Population: Text, Sources and Background, Criticism, edited by Philip Appelman. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1976.

  _______. Population: The First Essay. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1959.

  Mazur, Laurie, ed. A Pivotal Moment: Population, Justice, and the Environmental Challenge. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2009.

  McKee, Jeffrey K. Sparing Nature: The Conflict Between Human Population Growth and Earth’s Biodiversity. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2003.

  Pearce, Fred. The Coming Population Crash: And Our Planet’s Surprising Future. Boston: Beacon Press, 2010.

  Pimm, Stuart L. A Scientist Audits the Earth. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001.

  Randers, Jørgen. 2052: A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2012.

  Rees, W., and M. Wackernagel. Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers, 1996.

  Wilson, Edward O. The Diversity of Life. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999.

  _______. The Future of Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002.

  Worldwatch Institute. Vital Signs 2012: The Trends That Are Shaping Our Future. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2012.

  Chapter One: A Weary Land of Four Questions

  BOOKS

  Benstein, Jeremy. The Way Into Judaism and the Environment. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2006.

  Bernstein, Ellen. Splendor of Creation: A Biblical Ecology. Berea, OH: The Pilgrim Press, 2005.

  Colborn, Theo, et al. Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence, and Survival?—A Scientific Detective Story. New York: Penguin Books, 1997.

  DellaPergola, Sergio. “Jewish Demography & Peoplehood: 2008,” in Facing Tomorrow: Background Policy Documents. Jerusalem: The Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, 2008, pp. 231–50.

  Hillel, Daniel. The Natural History of the Bible: An Environmental Exploration of the Hebrew Scriptures. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006.

  Leshem, Y., Y. Yom-Tov, D. Alon, and J. Shamoun-Baranes. “Bird Migration as an Interdicipinary Tool for Global Cooperation,” in Aviation Migration, edited by Peter Berthold, Eberhad Gwinner, and Edith Sonnenschein. Heidelberg and Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2003, pp. 585–99.

  Orenstein, Daniel E. “Zionist and Israeli Perspectives on Population Growth and Environmental Impact in Palestine and Israel,” in Between Ruin and Restoration: An Environmental History of Israel, edited by Daniel E. Orenstein, Alon Tal, and Char Miller. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2013, pp. 82–105.

  Status of the Environment in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Bethlehem, Palestine: Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem (ARIJ), 2007.

  Tal, Alon. Pollution in a Promised Land: An Environmental History of Israel. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009.

  Tolan, Sandy. The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East. New York: Bloomsbury, 2007.

  Vogel, Carole G., and Yossi Leshem. The Man Who Flies With Birds. Minneapolis: Kar-Ben Publishing, 2009.

  Yom-Tov, Yoram, and Heinrich Mendelssohm. “Changes in the Distribution and Abundance of Vertebrates in Israel During the 20th Century,” in The Zoogeography of Israel, Yoram Yom-Tov and E. Tchernov, editors. The Hague, Holland: Dr. W. Junk Publishers, 1988, pp. 515–48.

  ARTICLES

  “After 1,000 Years, Israel Is Largest Jewish Center.” Arutz Sheva7, May 1, 2005.

  Allen, Lori, Vincent A. Brown, and Ajantha Subramanian. “Condemning Kramer.” Harvard Crimson, April 19, 2010.

  Beit Sourik Village Council v. The Government of Israel. HCJ 2056/04, Israel: Supreme Court, May 30, 2004. http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf.

  Bystrov, Evgenia, and Arnon Soffer. “Israel: Demography and Density 2007–2020.” Chaikin Chair in Geostrategy, University of Haifa. May 2008.

  Cairncross, Frances. “Connecting Flights.” Conservation in Practice, vol. 7, no. 1 (2006): 14–21.

  Cunningham, Erin. “Fertility Prospects in Israel: Ever Below Replacement Level?” UN Population Expert Group Meeting on Recent and Future Trends in Fertility. November 17, 2009.

  _______. “World Water Day: Thirsty Gaza Residents Battle Salt, Sewage.” Christian Science Monitor, March 22, 2010.

  Finkelstein, Yoram, Yael Dubowski, et al. “Organophosphates in Hula Basin: Atmospheric Levels, Transport, Degradation, Products and Neurotoxic Hazards in Children Following Low-Level Long Term Exposure.” Environment and Health Fund, http://www.ehf.org.il/en/node/243.

  Greenwood, Phoebe. “Israel Threatens to Cut Water and Power to Gaza in Tel Aviv.” Telegraph (UK), November 27, 2011.

  “Israel Tops Western World in Pesticide Use.” Argo News, November 1, 2012. http://news.agropages.com/News.

  Jeffay, Nathan. “Sand for Sale: An Unusual Solution to Theft in the Negev.” Jewish Daily Forward, November 26, 2008.

  Kaplan, M. M., Y. Goor, and E. S. Tiekel. “A Field Demonstration of Rabies Control Using Chicken Embryo Vaccine in Dogs.” Bulletin of the World Health Organization, vol. 10, no. 5 (1954): 743–52.

  Kennedy, Marie. “7th Generation: Israel’s War for Water.” Progressive Planning Magazine, no. 196 (Fall 2006): 2–6.

  Klein, Jeff. “Martin Kramer, Harvard and the Eugenics of Zion.” Counterpunch, April 12, 2010.

  Levy, Gideon. “The Threat of the ‘Demographic Threat.’ ” Haaretz, July 25, 2007.

  Orenstein, Daniel. “Population Growth and Environmental Impact: Ideology and Academic Discourse in Israel.” Population and Environment, vol. 26, no. 1 (2004): 41–60.

  “Palestine Denied Water.” BBC News, October 27, 2009.

  Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol. 364, no. 1532 (October 2009): 2969–3124.

  Prime Minister of Israel’s Office. “Cabinet Approves Emergency Plan to Increase the Production of Desalinated Water.” Press release, January 30, 2011.

  Rinat, Zafrir. “Panel Says Pesticides Are Harming People, Killing Birds.” Haaretz, October 20, 2009. http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news.

  _______.“When Coverage of a Water Crisis Vanishes.” Nieman Report, 2005.

  Rozenman, Eric. “Israeli Arabs and the Future of the Jewish State.” Middle East Quarterly, vol
. 6, no. 3 (September 1999): 15–23. http://www.meforum.org/478.

  Sanders, Edmund. “Israel Sperm Banks Find Quality Is Plummeting.” Los Angeles Times, August 15, 2012.

  “The Separation Barrier in the West Bank.” B’Tselem—The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (map), February 2008.

  Siegel-Itzkovich, Judy. “Birds on His Brain.” Science section, Jerusalem Post, November 6, 2005, p. 7.

  Sontag, Debora. “Cramped Gaza Multiplies at Unrivaled Rates.” New York Times, February 24, 2000.

  Tolan, Sandy. “It’s the Occupation, Stupid.” Le Monde Diplomatique, English edition, September 26, 2011. http://mondediplo.com/openpage/it-s-the-occupation-stupid.

  Turner, Michael, Nader Kahteeb, and Kalhed Nassar. Crossing the Jordan: Concept Document to Rehabilitate, Promote Prosperity and Help Bring Peace to the Lower Jordan River Valley. Amman, Bethlehem, and Tel Aviv: Eco Peace/Friends of the Earth Middle East, March 2005.

  Udasin, Sharon. “Israel Uses More Pesticides Than Any OECD Country.” Jerusalem Post, November 1, 2012.

  Wulfsohn, Aubrey. “What Retreat from the Territories Means for Israel’s Water Supply.” Think-Israel (website), March–April 2005. http://www.think-israel.org/wulfsohn.water.html.

  Yom-Tov, Yoram, et al. “Cattle Predation by the Golden Jackal (Canis avreus) in the Golan Heights Israel.” Biological Conservation, vol. 73 (1995): 19–22.

  Yuval-Davis, Nira. “Bearers of the Collective: Women and Religious Legislation in Israel.” Feminist Review, vol. 4 (1980): 15–27.

  Zureik, Elia. “Demography and Transfer: Israel’s Road to Nowhere.” Third World Quarterly, vol. 24, no. 4 (2003): 619–30.

  Chapter Two: A World Bursting Its Seams

  BOOKS

  Baird, Vanessa. The No-Nonsense Guide to World Population. Oxford: New Internationalist Guide Publication, 2011.

  Bartlett, Albert A., Robert G. Fuller, and Vicki L. Plano Clark. The Essential Exponential! For the Future of Our Planet. Lincoln, NE: Center for Science, Mathematics & Computer Education, 2008.

  Brown, Lester R. Plan B: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003.

  _______. World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse. London: Earthscan Publications, 2011.

  Connelly, Matthew. Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008.

  Hartmann, Betsy. Reproductive Rights and Wrongs: The Global Politics of Population Control. Boston: South End Press, 1995.

  Lovelock, James. The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning. New York: Basic Books, 2009.

  Mazur, Laurie, ed. A Pivotal Moment: Population, Justice, and the Environmental Challenge. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2009.

  Pimm, Stuart L. A Scientist Audits the Earth. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001.

  Randers, Jørgen. 2052: A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2012.

  Rees, W., and M. Wackernagel. Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers, 1996.

  Rosenzweig, Michael L. Win-Win Ecology: How the Earth’s Species Can Survive in the Midst of Human Enterprise. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

  Shankar Singh, Jyoti. Creating a New Consensus on Population. London: Earthscan Publications, 1998.

  Simon, Julian. The Ultimate Resource 2. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998.

  Worldwatch Institute. Vital Signs 2012: The Trends That Are Shaping Our Future. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2012.

  ARTICLES

  Angus, Ian, and Simon Butler. “Panic Over 7 Billion: Letting the 1% Off the Hook.” Different Takes, no. 73 (Fall 2011).

  Bartlett, Albert A. “Arithmetic, Population and Energy.” Lecture, Global Public Media, August 29, 2004. http://old.globalpublicmedia.com/lectures/461.

  _______.“Democracy Cannot Survive Overpopulation.” Population and Environment: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, vol. 22, no. 1 (September 2000): 63–71.

  _______, and Edward P. Lytwak. “Rejoinder to Daily, Ehrlich, and Ehrlich: Immigration and Population Policy in the United States.” Population and Environment: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, vol. 16, no. 6 (July 1995): 527–37.

  _______.“Zero Growth of the Population of the United States.” Population and Environment: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, vol. 16, no. 5 (May 1995): 415–28.

  Blackner, Lesley. “Existing Residents Should Guide Community Growth.” St. Petersburg Times, guest column, May 3, 2004.

  Brill, Richard. “Earth’s Carrying Capacity Is an Inescapable Fact.” Honolulu Star-Advertiser, November 5, 2012.

  Carter, Jimmy. “Address to the Nation on Energy,” April 18, 1977. Transcript and video. Miller Institute of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, http://millercenter.org/president/speeches/detail/3398.

  Cave, Damien. “Florida Voters Enter Battle on Growth.” New York Times, September 27, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28.

  Daily, Gretchen C., Anne H. Ehrlich, and Paul R. Ehrlich. “Response to Bartlett and Lytwak (1995): Population and Immigration Policy in the United States.” Population and Environment: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, vol. 16, no. 6 (July 1995): 521–27.

  Fanelli, Daniele. “Meat Is Murder on the Environment.” New Scientist, no. 2613, July 18, 2007.

  Hartmann, Betsy. “10 Reasons Why Population Control Is Not the Solution to Global Warming.” Different Takes, no. 57 (Winter 2009).

  _______.“Rebuttal to Chris Hedges: Stop the Tired Overpopulation Hysteria.” AlterNet, March 13, 2009. http://www.alternet.org/authors/betsy-hartmann.

  _______.“The Return of Population Control: Incentives, Targets, and the Backlash Against Cairo.” Different Takes, no. 70 (Spring 2011).

  Howard, Peter E. “Report Warns of State Growth to 101 Million.” National/World section, Tampa Tribune, final edition, April 2, 1999, p. 1.

  Jansen, Michael. “Palestinian Population Fast Approaching That of Israeli Jews.” Irish Times, January 8, 2011.

  Kennedy, Marie. “7th Generation Israel’s War for Water.” Progressive Planning Magazine, Fall 2006. http://www.plannersnetwork.org/publications/2006_Fall/kennedy.html.

  Lori, Aviva. “Grounds for Disbelief.” Haaretz, May 8, 2003.

  Murtaugh, Paul A., and Michael G. Schlax. “Reproduction and the Carbon Legacies of Individuals.” Global Environmental Change, vol. 19 (2009): 14–20.

  Oldham, James. “Rethinking the Link: A Critical Review of Population-Environment Programs.” A joint publication of the Population and Development Program at Hampshire College and the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, February 2006.

  Owen, James. “Farming Claims Almost Half Earth’s Land, New Maps Show.” National Geographic News, December 9, 2005.

  Pearce, Fred. “The Overpopulation Myth.” Prospect Magazine, March 8, 2010.

  Population and Development Program at Hampshire College. “10 Reasons to Rethink ‘Overpopulation.’ ” Different Takes, no. 40, Fall 2006.

  Price of Sprawl Calculator website, http://www.priceofsprawl.com.

  Rees, William. “Are Humans Unsustainable by Nature?” Trudeau Lecture at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, January 28, 2009.

  Tripati, A. K., C. D. Roberts, and R. A. Eagle. “Coupling of CO2 and Ice Sheet Stability Over Major Climate Transitions of the Last 20 Million Years.” Science, vol. 326, no. 5958 (December 2009): 1394–97. doi: 10.1126/science.1178296.

  Weisman, Alan. “Harnessing the Big H.” Los Angeles Times Magazine, September 25, 1994.

  Whitty, Julia. “The Last Taboo.” Mother Jones, May/June 2010.

  Chapter Three: Body Counts and the Paradox of Food

  BOOKS

  Catton, William R. Bottleneck: Humanity’s Impending Impasse. Bloomington, IN: Xlibris Corporation, 20
09.

  _______. Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change. Champaign-Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1982.

  Coffey, Patrick. Cathedrals of Science: The Personalities and Rivalries That Made Modern Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

  Engelman, Robert. More: Population, Nature, and What Women Want. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2010.

  Malthus, Thomas R. An Essay on the Principle of Population: Text, Sources and Background, Criticism, edited by Philip Appelman. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1976.

  _______. Population: The First Essay. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1959.

  McCullough, David. The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870–1914, reprint edition. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1978.

  Nicholson, Nick. I Was a Stranger. New York: Sheed & Ward, 1972.

  Pimentel, David, and Marcia Pimentel. Food, Energy, and Society. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2008.

  Smil, Vaclav. Enriching the Earth: Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, and the Transformation of World Food Production. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 2001.

  Vallero, Daniel A. Biomedical Ethics for Engineers: Ethics and Decision Making in Biomedical and Biosystem Engineering. The Biomedical Engineering Series. Burlington, MA: Academic Press/Elsevier, 2007.

  ARTICLES

  Ambrose, Stanley H. “Late Pleistocene Human Population Bottlenecks, Volcanic Winter, and Differentiation of Modern Humans.” Journal of Human Evolution, vol. 34, no. 4 (1998): 623–51. doi: 10.1006/jhev.1998.0219.

  Best, M., and D. Neuhauser. “Heroes and Martyrs of Quality and Safety: Ignaz Semmelweis and the Birth of Infection Control.” Quality Safe Health Care, vol. 13 (2004): 233–34. doi:10.1136/qshc.2004.010918.

  Bodnar, Anastasia. “Stress Tolerant Maize for the Developing World—Challenges and Prospects.” Biology Fortified, Inc., website, The Biofortified Blog, March 20, 2010.

  Borlaug, Norman. “Billions Served: An Interview with Norman Borlaug.” Interviewed by Ronald Bailey. Reason Magazine, April 2000.

  _______.Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech. Oslo, December 10, 1970. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1970/borlaug-acceptance.html.