We dream of a long and healthy life for everyone, invest to the utmost in our fellow men’s humanity. By doing so, we nourish the monster called overpopulation, which is responsible for today’s rapid climate change. When we look at the increase of the world’s population combined with the increase in prosperity, the consequences for our climate become very clear. The Club of Rome already pointed out this problem in 1972 with the bestseller The Limits to Growth, a wake-up call for the world. Over the past decades, however, population growth as a decisive factor has disappeared entirely from the climate debate, as it is linked to exceptionally difficult moral questions. Is it even possible to regulate population growth. And if so, how?

Van Druenen places the discussion in a historical perspective, naming several thinkers who expounded controversial positions centuries ago, and are denounced until this very day. In his well-substantiated argumentation, he opts for a pragmatic position between climate change deniers and defenders.