Our Shrinking Planet

* Author's note * Introduction * Chapter One * Growing and shrinking * Eros, Thanatos and the demographic balance in the ancient world. From biological-instinctual conditions to individual choice. The world's changeable geodemography. Demographic transition and demographic revolution: from 1 to 10 billion in two centuries. * Chapter Two * Land, water, air * Simeon Stylites and his environmental footprint. The cabal of the 10 x 2 x 7. More than half the planet changed by human intervention. Population and fragile regions: coasts, forests and urbanisation. From the London smog of the seventeenth century to the greenhouse effect in the twenty-first. * Chapter Three * Adaptation and self-regulation * Demographic systems' adaptation and self-regulation. Examples from history. The possibility of regulating modern populations: reproduction levels and migration. Biological and social change. Italy after the crisis: a system-change? * Chapter Four * SustainableÉ for whom? * Zeus, the Brundtland Report and sustainability. The Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals: isn't population a priority any more? Demographic explosion, demographic decline: both unsustainable. The parable of Tycoonia and Pauperia. * Chapter Five * Geodemography and geopolitics * Mussolini ? numbers mean power. The pendulum of fear, between growth and decline. Geodemography and geopolitics. The weight of numbers within states: ethnicities, religions, minorities and majorities. Power rankings. * Chapter Six * Homo sapiens, Homo movens * Shipwrecks and barriers. International migration grows despite obstacles. Demographic and economic pressures. Three past globalisation processes, and the fourth one to come. The unsustainability of politics without international rules. * Chapter Seven * Long lifespans have their cost * A woman from Arles lived to 122 years of age. In the rich countries a life expectancy of 90 is not far off. The sustainability of long lifespans. The profile of a 100 year society. Rigid ages, flexible roles. Four generations under one roof. * Chapter Eight * Few prescriptions for many ills * Poverty and hunger: the Millennium Development Goals reached. But the numbers of poor and hungry in Africa increase. The burden of 168 objectives. The Malthusian trap. Nuclear-armed India with one in five children wasted. Political mission: concentrate efforts, dismantle the trap. * Epilogue * Our shrinking planet * A thousand times more crowded, a thousand times smaller. Still today a pendulum of fear, between overpopulation and depopulation. Seven demographic and political notes. Awareness of limits. * Notes * Index