Post by Tex on Jan 14, 2013 15:04:37 GMT -6
With all of the bad news about these days, the Wall Street Journal and others have reported that the Earth's population should level out in a few decades and maybe even stop dropping. While this may be bad news for pension systems that count on ever increasing population to work, the big picture is that we can sustain ourselves without choosing between big hits to our lifestyle or pushing the environment past its limits.
The demographic ch-ch-change was widespread and included China, India, the Middle East, Europe, North America, South America, and about everywhere except sub-Saharan Africa. The ch-ch-change in Mexico was particularly pronounced, moving from over 7 children per female a few decades ago to about 2.1, a little lower than in the US.
While I don't doubt that the earth could feed more people, there is only so much space and there would be some hard choices to make. It looks like the basic assumptions in Paul Ehrlich's depressing book may have changed.
The demographic ch-ch-change was widespread and included China, India, the Middle East, Europe, North America, South America, and about everywhere except sub-Saharan Africa. The ch-ch-change in Mexico was particularly pronounced, moving from over 7 children per female a few decades ago to about 2.1, a little lower than in the US.
While I don't doubt that the earth could feed more people, there is only so much space and there would be some hard choices to make. It looks like the basic assumptions in Paul Ehrlich's depressing book may have changed.
