3.5, rounding up to 4 stars. It's nice to see some optimism in science, and this book made me think about population in ways that I hadn't before. I found a lot of it to be convincing - the point about immigration contributing positively to a decline in population growth makes absolute sense, for instance. And I enjoy that Dorling takes a wider perspective in some areas, for example in his discussion of economic inequality (aka The Spirit Level argument). That said he gets a bit misty-eyed when it comes to children. Oh, we can't blame children, it's all the stupid adults! Well, yes, but children require clean water as well as adults, and regardless of fault. Oh, but children contribute to the sum of human happiness! Which doesn't mean squat to the species going extinct because they're being crowded out of habitat.

This is a very human-centric book, is what I'm saying. There is some small acknowledgement that we share the Earth with other species, but not much care about what happens to them as long as we're alright. And while Dorling's point about resource use vs. population is well-taken, he seems to me over-optimistic in the idea that we'll find a happy medium of ecological responsibility. (I note that the copy of the book that I'm reading says nothing about being printed on FSC approved paper, for instance.)