While the book has excellent information, the underlying thread was more repetitive than "World Without Us" (which was 5 stars). Like that work, each chapter is a story of a particular thing - in this case, China (1 child policy), Israel (Palestinians and Jews both fighting the battle of the womb), etc. The big picture here is that there are good influences on population (contraception, education) and bad (religious doctrine, poverty). Excellent side points were made about world population, including the economic aspects (growth economy, lack of support for aging population) and the fact that consumption is just as important as population.