Interesting article on TechCentralStation about global population growth and decline.

Today's equivalent of that old skinflint Scrooge is Paul Ehrlich, who published his landmark book The Population Bomb in 1968. Since then, dire threats of global starvation and energy shortages have become a normal part of public discourse.



Yet 35 years and a billion people later, none of the doomsaying of Ehrlich and his influential acolytes has come to pass. In fact, population growth is slowing dramatically, and by the reckoning of virtually all demographers, it will end during this century.

You can't estimate population growth with a calculator because simple mathematical formulas don't take into account underlying circumstances such as fertility rates. But we do know that in almost every nation women are having fewer children, with those in about 60 nations already giving birth at a rate far less than replacement.