Ending the Explosion: Population Policies and Ethics for a Humane Future (NPG Booknote)
- David Simcox
- October 1, 1996
- Forum Papers
- Forum Paper
- 0 Comments
Click here for a downloadable, printable PDF version.
Ending the Explosion: Population Policies and Ethics for a Humane Future
An NPG Forum Paper
(NPG Booknote)
by David Simcox
October 1996
Two years ago the world badly needed William Hollingsworth’s tough-minded but humane prescription for urgent reduction of human fertility.
His book offers what the 1994 UN Conference in Cairo on Population and Development (UNCPD) should have produced but studiously avoided: a strategy and a moral and political justification for a global effort to reduce world fertility to replacement level in the next 15 to 20 years. Just such an urgent endeavor, he warns, is the world’s best chance to stabilize its population at less than 10 billion by the end of the next century. A central argument of this book is that humankind’s ability to limit its own fertility is now the most critical determinant of finding or losing a humane future.
Humankind’s ability to limit its own fertility is now the most critical determinant of finding or losing a humane future.
Where the UNCPD uttered only exhortations, the author prescribes fertility and population goals and timetables. While the UNCPD soft-pedaled money talk, Hollingsworth suggests the sums needed and their sources. Most crucially, he makes the case that incentives and disincentives, a concept scorned in Cairo, can reduce fertility while enhancing human freedom and dignity.
….Continue reading the full Forum paper by clicking here.
David Simcox is a former NPG Senior Advisor. From 1985 to 1992 he was executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. From 1956 to 1985, Simcox was a career diplomat of the U.S. Department of State, with service in diplomatic posts in Latin America, Africa, Europe, and in Washington. His diplomatic assignments involved formulation of policy for labor, population and migration issues in such countries as Mexico, Panama, Dominican Republic, Brazil and the nations of Indo-China. Simcox is a frequent contributor on population, immigration and Latin American matters to national newspapers and periodicals and has testified on several occasions before congressional committees on immigration, labor and identification policies. He holds degrees from the University of Kentucky, American University and the National War College. Simcox is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and saw service in the Korean conflict. If you are affiliated with the media and would like to schedule an interview with David, please contact us at 703-370-9510.
