This book presents the strongest possible arguments about human population, climate change, and the relationship between Earth and human beings, discussing how people on Earth should act to stabilize human population, and why and how they should act to stabilize the composition of the atmosphere. Three arguments are offered in service of the ultimate goal that is to strike a new balance in which the scale of human activities is in keeping with the scale of natural systems. The book describes the approach to population issues that prevailed from the time population became a widespread public co ... More

This book presents the strongest possible arguments about human population, climate change, and the relationship between Earth and human beings, discussing how people on Earth should act to stabilize human population, and why and how they should act to stabilize the composition of the atmosphere. Three arguments are offered in service of the ultimate goal that is to strike a new balance in which the scale of human activities is in keeping with the scale of natural systems. The book describes the approach to population issues that prevailed from the time population became a widespread public concern in the 1960s, and the shift in approach which took place as women's health organizations and other feminist groups weighed in on population at the Cairo conference in 1994. It outlines the current knowledge about the science of climate change, recapitulates the development of the science in the past hundred years, and describes the history and content of the negotiations, including the Rio and Berlin meetings and the Kyoto Protocol. The book explains the difficult equity issues involved, continued resistance to the negotiations, and the economic models on which much of this resistance is based. It focuses on the policy agenda that is believed to be most powerful for stemming climate change: a revenue-neutral tax shift. The book also covers the scale of emission reductions required to stabilize the climate, and the importance of energy and materials efficiency.