How Many Americans?

In this tough-minded, lucid book, Leon Bouvier and Lindsey Grant examine the inevitable and escalating environmental degradation that will result if population growth pushes the limits of our already strained environmental carrying capacity. If we are already grappling with dirty air, poisoned water, destruction of forests, the loss of topsoil, vanishing species, and the deterioration of cities, with the gap between rich and poor growing ever wider, what will the next century be like as we grow from 260 to 400 million? The prospects the authors describe are not pretty ones.

Because of our energy-demanding, consumption-driven economy, the United States is the leading source of two of the gravest threats to life on this planet -- acid precipitation and climatic warming. Given the disproportionate damage we as Americans create, the authors call for appropriate attention to the difficult issues raised by population questions.

Analyzing current and projected rates of fertility, mortality and migration, Bouvier and Grant forecast various population scenarios and conclude that low fertility rates alone will not solve our population problem. They recommend lower immigration levels to achieve environmental sustainability in the twenty-first century. Arguing with compassion and concern for the less fortunate in other countries, the authors point out ways the United States could support population-reducing policies abroad and promote the empowerment of women in decisions affecting family size. At the same time, they urge Americans to act responsibly toward our own future, here, at home.

In the increasingly heated debate over immigration, the reasoned, unflinching, progressive voice of How Many Americans? is sure to play a pivotal role.

Leon F. Bouvier is Adjunct Professor of Demography at Tulane University and Senior Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies. He served as demographic consultant to the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Population and the Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy. His publications include Immigration and Social Diversity, Fifty Million Californians and Peaceful Invasions.

Lindsey Grant is a retired National Security Council staff member and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Environment and Population, and the author of Foresight and National Decisions: The Horseman and the Bureaucrat and Elephants in the Volkswagen.