Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?

Author and journalist Alan Weisman's best selling book The World Without Us asked readers to envision how our planet would respond to a loss of the human race. His new book, Countdown: Our Last Best Hope for a Future on Earth? tackles population growth and the challenges it poses for a sustainable human future. The book took him to more than twenty countries, seeking insight into how we could achieve a stable, optimum population and design an economy that allows for prosperity without endless growth. Alan Weisman's reports have been featured in publications ranging from the Atlantic Monthly to Vanity Fair and have earned him appearances on The Daily Show, Nova and The Today Show. He is a former contributing editor to the Los Angeles Times Magazine, a senior radio producer for Homelands Productions and taught international journalism at the University of Arizona. Part of the Wildness, Wilderness & the Environmental Imagination Series and the University Symposium on Sustainability.