Global Population Clock

 "How Many Is Enough? THE DEFINING ISSUE OF THE 21ST CENTURY" By Valorie M. Allen. 2025

Val Allen's timely, highly readable, book is an excellent and very informative investigation of the most pressing issue of this age; the out-of-control human population growth. Considering the large quantity of information packed into this volume, it is remarkably well organized. The very detailed table of contents helps a great deal as do the many bold face chapter sub headings and regular key quotes inserted in highlighted boxes on many pages.  I like the use of foot-noted references. All this makes it extremely easy to find one's way around the substantial book. 

This efficiently designed and very approachable publication would be ideal for the lay person and for college/university students. One thing in favour of using this in college or university course is that the volume is very reasonably priced. As well as being a fine teaching tool, this book should be assigned reading for media reporters and columnists, as many of them are woefully ignorant of the consequences of rising human population. All economists and industrialists, naively worshiping at the altar of "infinite economic growth in a finite planet", politicians, every bureaucrat from federal, provincial to local government, should be encouraged to read Val's thoughtful and intelligent and well researched volume.
I believed myself to be knowledgeable on the population problem, but while I was reading this book I kept discovering new fascinating facts that I had missed, or at least not given sufficient thought. The book is an impressive fund of well presented and valuable information.
It is easy to get depressed when considering the looming implications of human over-population, but the more upbeat Chapters 13 and 14 are well worth reading for those who feel that there is no way out of our global predicament. The sections of the book that were written with a feminist approach were excellent and this is an approach that needs much more open public discussion. 

David Mayne Reid, Emeritus Professor of Botany, University of Calgary.