After the Spike: Population, Progress, and the Case for People

An eye-opening exploration of humanity's unprecedented path to global depopulation and its significance from economists Dean Spears and Michael Geruso. The world's population has surged over the past 200 years--not due to increased fertility, but thanks to improvements in survival. Since then, our larger society has thrived like never before: scientific breakthroughs, a global economy, healthier lives, and social progress. A significant shift is now on the horizon. Humanity is projected to peak at 10 billion, followed by a rapid decline. It would be easy to think that fewer people would be better--better for the planet, better for the people who remain. This book asks you to think again. Depopulation is not the solution we urgently need for environmental challenges, nor will it raise living standards by dividing what the world can offer across fewer of us. In After the Spike, economists Dean Spears and Michael Geruso shed light on the consequences of this unprecedented shift. They carefully analyze the stakes of global depopulation, exploring its impact on living standards, climate, and even extinction. Surprisingly, they reveal that stabilizing the global population doesn't have to mean sacrificing our dreams of a greener future or reverting to past gender inequities. Their insights challenge us to view the fight against depopulation as intertwined with social equity and the inherent value of every human life. After the Spike is a rallying call to action to ensure a thriving future for generations to come.

Dr. Dean Spears is an economic demographer, development economist, and associate professor of economics at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also the founding executive director of the Research Institute of Compassionate Economics (r.i.c.e.) and the director of the Population Wellbeing Initiative at UT-Austin. With Dr. Diane Coffey, he is the author of the award-winning bookWhere India Goes: Abandoned Toilets, Stunted Development, and the Costs of Caste. He holds a masters in public affairs and a PhD in economics, both from Princeton. He is an affiliate of the Institute for Labor Economics (IZA) and of the Population Research Center at UT-Austin. His work has been published in top peer-reviewed outlets including theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature Climate Change, andDemography, and has been featured in The New York Times, National Geographic, Time, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, Vox, The Atlantic, and The Economist.