POPULATION EXPLOSION NOW A BIRTH DEARTH

The Orange County Register, Orange, CA, Sunday, August 5, 2001

Commentary

 The idea that unbridled population growth will lead to environmental and social disasters as the world meets its “carrying capacity,” is a holy canon of the environmental movement.  Yet increasing evidence – including a new study released in Nature magazine this month – is painting a starkly different picture.  Rather than continue to increase, world population is likely to stabilize at about 9 billion in 2070 and begin declining from there, according to researchers in Austria.

In Europe, a “birth dearth” is threatening not only long term population declines, but the viability of European economies.  Without replacement levels of population, there are too few people to pay for the generous pension plans typical there.  Sure, population rates are still high in poor countries, but as countries develop and become more prosperous, birth rates fall dramatically in those countries as well.

 The Orange County Register is the leading newspaper in Orange County, CA.