{"product_id":"after-the-spike-population-progress-and-the-case-for-people-9781668057339","title":"After the Spike: Population, Progress, and the Case for People","description":"\u003cb\u003eWhat if the challenge for humanity's future is not \u003ci\u003etoo many\u003c\/i\u003e people on a crowded planet, but \u003ci\u003etoo few \u003c\/i\u003epeople to sustain the progress that the world needs?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMost people on Earth today live in a country where birth rates already are too low to stabilize the population: fewer than two children for every two adults. In \u003ci\u003eAfter the Spike, \u003c\/i\u003e economists Dean Spears and Michael Geruso sound a wakeup call, explaining why global depopulation is coming, why it matters, and what to do now. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e It would be easy to think that fewer people would be better--better for the planet, better for the people who remain. This book invites us all to think again. Despite what we may have been told, depopulation is not the solution we urgently need for environmental challenges like climate change. Nor will it raise living standards by dividing what the world can offer across fewer of us. Spears and Geruso investigate what depopulation would mean for the climate, for living standards, for equity, for progress, for freedom, for humanity's general welfare. And what it would mean if, instead, people came together to share the work of caregiving and of building societies where parenting fits better with everything else that people aspire to. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith new evidence and sharp insights, Spears and Geruso make a lively and compelling case for stabilizing the population--without sacrificing our dreams of a greener future or reverting to past gender inequities. They challenge us to see how depopulation threatens social equity and material progress, and how welcoming it denies the inherent value of every human life. More than an assembly of the most important facts\u003ci\u003e, After the Spike\u003c\/i\u003e asks what future we should want for our planet, for our children, and for one another.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDr. Dean Spears and Dr. 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 research institute for compassionate economics), 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, where he advised on healthcare and population change. Their research on health, population, and climate change has been published in top peer-reviewed journals including the \u003ci\u003eAmerican Economic Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eNature Climate Chang\u003c\/i\u003ee, and the \u003ci\u003eProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences\u003c\/i\u003e. Both live in Austin, Texas.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Simon \u0026 Schuster","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51424501039378,"sku":"9781668057339","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_2b553a7e-6d5f-4cfb-a5fa-a2f1d7969385.jpg?v=1751381132","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/after-the-spike-population-progress-and-the-case-for-people-9781668057339","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}