Trillions of mirrors launched into space to deflect the sun's
rays. A massive fleet of ships churning up sea spray to increase
Earth's cloud cover. As political responses to climate change
limp along, scientists currently are debating these and other
geoengineering schemes to stabilize the climate. Yet, as many
have observed, such schemes carry formidable costs--and risks.
In contrast, there are sensible, low-tech ways to reduce our
collective carbon footprint for relatively little cost, at far
less risk, and with substantial social benefits. Voluntarily
slowing population growth is one of them. "Population growth"
isn't synonymous with "population control"--the top-down
programs that have trampled human rights and health in pursuit
of lower birthrates, notably in India and China. Today, there is
a broad global consensus that the best way to slow growth is by
ensuring that all people are able to make real choices about
childbearing. That means access to voluntary family planning and
other reproductive-health