Rating: 
Summary: Informative and easy to read ¿ highly recommended.
Review: An environmental writer tends to think about the future more than most of us. His stock in trade is what is happening to the world around us and the probability trends describing what is to come. But that investigative concern is heightened by having a child - it becomes much more personal. Bill McKibben is just that kind of environmental writer and his young daughter inspired the research that led to this book.Unlike many environmental books this one is a quick and easy read. It touches on the personal, social, economic, and ecological aspects of starting a family that all of us should discuss. The book keeps a positive tone even though the facts presented warn of a future few parents would wish on their child. The book is both educational and a call to action on a personal and societal level. The theme of the book could be his statement that we may live in a special time. "We may live in the strangest, most thoroughly different moment since humans took up farming 10,000 years ago and time more or less commenced. Since then time has flowed in one direction - toward more, which we have taken to be progress. At first the momentum was gradual, almost imperceptible, checked by wars and dark ages and plagues and taboos; but in recent centuries it has accelerated, the curve of every graph steepening like the Himalayas rising from the Asian steppe. We need to see if we're finally running up against some limits." McKibben thinks part of the answer to our growing population will be to encourage single-child families. With additional children there's a dilution of family resources. "Money, yes, but more important, the parents" time and emotional and physical energy." In many ways smaller families will be benefit us all as we move into a future of population pressures, overconsumption, environmental degradation and climate upheaval. This is especially important for Americans because of their much higher ecological impact. "We need in these fifty years, to be working sim! ultaneously on all parts of the equation - on our ways of life, on our technologies, and on our populations. It's a point in time poised uniquely between hope and fear. It is possible that we face unavoidable calamity, but it's also possible that we'll see remarkable change." As McKibben examined the current environmental predicament, he found that the perpetual expansion in the size of our economies is at least as damaging as the expansion of our poulations. Costs to the government for the elderly's aging, dying, and retirement will become unmanageable in the next century. Though he reluctantly deals with immigration he recognized that "it's clear that no more than a tiny minority - one half of one per cent, maybe - of the world's poor people will ever get to live in the United States, even if we double our immigration levels, even if we decide our borders could contain half a billion people." However, to benefit the environment it is best to stabilize the number of people living in this super-consuming nation. "Wildness doesn't disappear in a day. It erodes so slowly that you don't notice it going. But it does go." His conclusion is that because there are so many of us, and we have done such a poor job of planning for our numbers, we no longer have the luxury of not planning. "In a crowded world, not planning has as many consequences as planning. No decision any of us makes will have more effect on the world (and on our lives) than whether to bear another child. No decision, then, should be made with more care."
Rating:
Summary: Necessary and about time
Review: Being an only child myself (born in 1964) I was relieved to find a book that debunks the myths about single children. But more importantly, McKibben writes about how we can curb our impact on the environment by only having one child.If we really care about the environment and future children, we must take this step.An important book which every person considering parenthood should read. Now!
Rating: 
Summary: A book about population and environment that gets personal.
Review: Being an only child myself (born in 1964) I was relieved to find a book that debunks the myths about single children. But more importantly, McKibben writes about how we can curb our impact on the environment by only having one child.If we really care about the environment and future children, we must take this step.An important book which every person considering parenthood should read. Now!
Rating:
Summary: Earth issues and broader thoughts on the only child
Review: Bill McKibben has written a book that is not only much needed but a wake up call to those who care about the entire earth environment and what effect multi-child families have. As the mother of one child, a son who is now raised and responsible and happy I am always looking for books that dispel the myths about only children being selfish, spoiled, maladjusted loners (the authors words). The author doesn't just talk theory. And he walks his talk, in sharing the personal choice and experience of having a vasectomy. His work is thorough in showing how misplaced and out of context religious admonishments to go forth and multiply are. How we no longer need large families to work the farms much less the nine month school year. That we as a society need to rethink what children should be to society at large and get over the whole lug headed logic that as women we are not complete unless we reproduce and do so more than once. Or that real men are only the ones who create an heir, and usually a male one at that. I also appreciated immensely his challenging people to stop seeing a child as a hobby and start looking at the child as an individual with rights and that an only child that is reared with a mindset of personal responsibility is the best future citizen. And the fact is as his work shows, is this. Todays family with more than one child is the very family who succumbs to guilt buying. Over consuming and children with poor health i.e.obesity and altruistic thought that is not embraced but if taught is done so out of guilt feelings. the book is split into four sections. Part One: Family Part Two: Species Part Three: Nation Part Four: Self. And am so grateful the author has noted the works of Granville Stanley Hall who was born in 1844 and would go on to John Hopkins and do some earthshaking research as well as create the first research university in psychology.
Rating: 
Summary: Mixed Feelings
Review: Bill McKibben's book produces a mixture of feelings. On one hand, he presents a very strong argument as to why it is valuable to consider limiting the family to one child. He provides anecdotes that entertain the reader as he writes about the stereotypes, risks, and possibilities of having one child. He brings into consideration many aspects of the future in one child. He immediately disproves any stereotypes about only children that worry parents. However, on the other hand, McKibben's arguments repeat endlessly in a cycle of environmentalism. Many of the facts in between the stories lull the reader to sleep and thus, the story loses focus. The content of the book could be summarized in three sentences. 1. Only children are normal. 2. Earth is too crowded and can't handle more people. 3. Consider having one child. Unfortunately, the book's primary target, people in between ages 18-49, will have a love it/ hate it viewpoint. If they are having struggles with deciding between one child and more, then this book is very informative and shows the effects having less children will make. As for the people who eventually plan to have children, this book may not convince them. I recommend this book to people who are having difficulty deciding on the number of children to have but otherwise, I do not recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: So many bad ideas in so few pages.
Review: I am not a pro-natalist, but the anti-birth crowd certainly miss the boat here. Compare McKibben's statistics with Simon's (The Ultimate Resource). Rigorous analysis and peer-reviewed references are lacking here. With this latest tract, McKibben proves that environmentalism is the new "hobgoblin of little minds."
Rating: 
Summary: This book is about both the planet and your family
Review: I came at this book from two different directions--as an environmentalist, and as the father of a single child. And so it makes essentially two arguments. One is that population is one of the crucial forces propelling our environmental dilemma--particularly the population of high-consumption Americans. At current rates of fertility and of immigration, there will be 400 million of us in 2050, up from 270 million today--that's a lot of people driving cars, running air conditioners, and generally living like Americans. If, instead, our fertility level dropped to European norms, where one-child families are as common as two-child families, our population would plateau and eventually shrink slightly. But I also wanted to make sure that I wasn't sacrificing the happiness of my own daughter for the greater good. And so the book also contains an extensive account of where the myths about only children (they're spoiled, they're lonely, they're weird) came from, and why they are untrue. In fact, only children achieve at a slightly higher level than kids with siblings, and in terms of personality are indistinguishable--and that's a very important thing to know if you're trying to decide how many kids you're going to have. The decision on how many children to bear will be one of the most important personal decisions you'll ever make, and also one of the most important for the planet. I think it would be helpful for people to read this book and think about its arguments; I know the subject has been a little taboo for a long time, but I'd like to get a real conversation underway in our culture.
Rating:
Summary: So many bad ideas in so few pages.
Review: Maybe One by Bill McKibben The importance of this book to the near future of the United States is hard to exaggerate. It is a must for every young American, and everyone who cares about the quality of human life and of the environment. McKibben's premise is this: if large numbers of people choose to limit their families to one child, the maximum population of the United States will be lower by a critical amount. Most environmental thinkers recognize the central role of population growth in environment issues, including in this country. The United States is the third most populous country in the world, and the fastest growing industrialized nation. Bill McKibben has the courage to tell the truth: the only way to limit population growth is to choose small families. Deciding how many children to have, like it or not, is more than a private decision. It is very much a decision that will effect the quality of life of all Americans over the next 100 years. McKibben gently demolishes long-held beliefs in the poor adjustment of only children. He also argues against legislated population control, though one might make the case that such measures may become necessary if voluntary family limits fail. McKibben's relaxed, peppy style makes this book accessible to everyone, and his topic is the most important one for contemporary America.
Rating:
Summary: The most important book in contemporary America
Review: Maybe One by Bill McKibben The importance of this book to the near future of the United States is hard to exaggerate. It is a must for every young American, and everyone who cares about the quality of human life and of the environment. McKibben's premise is this: if large numbers of people choose to limit their families to one child, the maximum population of the United States will be lower by a critical amount. Most environmental thinkers recognize the central role of population growth in environment issues, including in this country. The United States is the third most populous country in the world, and the fastest growing industrialized nation. Bill McKibben has the courage to tell the truth: the only way to limit population growth is to choose small families. Deciding how many children to have, like it or not, is more than a private decision. It is very much a decision that will effect the quality of life of all Americans over the next 100 years. McKibben gently demolishes long-held beliefs in the poor adjustment of only children. He also argues against legislated population control, though one might make the case that such measures may become necessary if voluntary family limits fail. McKibben's relaxed, peppy style makes this book accessible to everyone, and his topic is the most important one for contemporary America.
Rating:
Summary: Necessary and about time
Review: Maybe One is an important book that is sure to ruffle a lot of feathers. Bill McKibben's background might for some evoke a walking contradiction and, indeed, his argument for single-child families could perpetuate that image. However, I prefer to view McKibben and his "argument" as complex, not easily lumped into a neat category, and willing to be unpopular--compelling qualities in both books and people. I have recommended (highly) this book to friends who, like my husband and me, have determined to raise an only child and whose decision has been met with disbelief or disdain. I have also praised it to people in my life who have been unsupportive of our decision to have one child. So if McKibben had simply taken on the role of only-child cheerleader, I must admit that I would be first in line to buy Maybe One if only for a validation of my own life choice. But McKibben is not in the easy business of validation. His scientific, historically grounded appro! ach is first and foremost about irrefutable consequence, whether the reader has ten children, one, or none at all.
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