Life on the Brink aspires to reignite a robust discussion of population issues among environmentalists, environmental studies scholars, policymakers, and the general public. Some of the leading voices in the American environmental movement restate the case that population growth is a major force behind many of our most serious ecological problems, including global climate change, habitat loss and species extinctions, air and water pollution, and food and water scarcity. As we surpass seven billion world inhabitants, contributors argue that ending population growth worldwide and in the United States is a moral imperative that deserves renewed commitment.
Hailing from a range of disciplines and offering varied perspectives, these essays hold in common a commitment to sharing resources with other species and a willingness to consider what will be necessary to do so. In defense of nature and of a vibrant human future, contributors confront hard issues regarding contraception, abortion, immigration, and limits to growth that many environmentalists have become too timid or politically correct to address in recent years.
Ending population growth will not happen easily. Creating genuinely sustainable societies requires major change to economic systems and ethical values coupled with clear thinking and hard work. Life on the Brink is an invitation to join the discussion about the great work of building a better future.

List of Tables and Figures ix

Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich, Foreword xi

Part I: Introduction

1. Eileen Crist and Philip Cafaro, Human Population Growth as If the Rest of Lifi Mattered 3

2. William R. Carton Jr., Destructive Momentum: Could an Enlightened Environmental Movement Overcome It? 16

3. Albert Bartlett, Reflections on Sustainability and Population Growth 29

4. Martha Campbell, Why the Silence on Population? 41

5. Dave Foreman, The Great Backtrack 56

Part II: Impacts

6. Leon Kolankiewicz, Overpopulation versus Biodiversity: How a Plethora of People Produces a Paucity of Wildlife 75

7. Jeffrey McKee, The Human Population Footprint on Global Biodiversity 91

8. Tim Palmer, Beyond Futility 98

9. Lester Brown, Environmental Refugees: The Rising Tide 108

10. George Wuerthner, Population, Fossil Fuels, and Agriculture 123

11. Captain Paul Watson, The Laws of Ecology and Human Population Growth 130

Part III: Necessary Conversations

12. Eileen Crist, Abundant Earth and the Population Question 141

13. Stephanie Mills, Nulliparity and a Cruel Hoax Revisited 154

14. Tom Butler, Colossus versus Liberty: A Bloated Humanity's Assault on Freedom 160

15. Philip Cafaro and Winthrop Staples III, The Environmental Argument for Reducing Immigration into the United States 172

16. Joseph Bish, Toward a New Armada: A Globalist Argument for Stabilizing the U.S. Population 189

17. Ronnie Hawkins, Perceiving Overpopulation: Can't We See What We're Doing? 202

18. Amy Gulick, Salmon in the Trees 214

Part IV Solutions

19. Robert Engelman, Trusting Women to End Population Growth 223

20. William Ryerson, How Do We Solve the Population Problem? 240

21. Don Weeden and Charmayne Palomba, A Post-Cairo Paradigm: Both Numbers and Women Matter 255

22. Richard Lamm, Confronting Finitude 274

23. Winthrop Staples III and Philip Cafaro, For a Species Right to Exist 283

24. Roderick Nash, Island Civilization: A Vision for Human Inhabitance in the Fourth Millennium 301

Philip Cafaro, Epilogue: Is Humanity a Cancer on the Earth? 313

Select Bibliography 319

Resources 323

Contributors 327

Index 333

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