The world might actually run out of people

Such dire population predictions aren’t the stuff of sci-fi; those numbers come from one of the most trusted world authorities, the United Nations.

But what if they’re wrong? Not like, off by a rounding error, but like totally, completely goofed?

That’s the conclusion Canadian journalist John Ibbitson and political scientist Darrell Bricker come to in their newest book, Empty Planet, due out February 5th. After painstakingly breaking down the numbers for themselves, the pair arrived at a drastically different prediction for the future of the human species. “In roughly three decades, the global population will begin to decline,” they write. “Once that decline begins, it will never end.”

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But Empty Planet is not a book about statistics so much as it is about what’s driving the choices people are making during the fastest period of change in human history. Ibbitson and Bricker take their readers inside the Indian slums of Delhi and the operating rooms of Sao Paulo, Brazil, to eavesdrop on the conversations young professionals have at dinner parties in Brussels and over drinks at a young professionals’ club in Nairobi. The end result is a compelling challenge to long-entrenched demography dogma

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TheParser said:

RE: the thread title


That's wonderful news, if true.

I am sure that our four-legged fellow animals will be especially delighted when all the two-legged animals disappear.

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Deuce said:

Any trend extrapolated to infinity results in destruction of the universe.

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Jetboogieman said:

It always assumed things remain a certain way, we have no idea what might happen in the future.

But one thing that must be addressed as a matter of urgency is the cost of child rearing, it is out of control and if governments want people to have kids they have to address the chronic rising of costs of everything associated with actually having them.

But the alarmist pieces of the 80s and 90s and our modern mythology of dystopian mega cities that rise miles in the air doesn't seem like it will come to pass... Probably neither will the worst case scenarios of depopulation, which will probably be more positive as it will take the strain of the Earths resources... Hopefully if we don't use them all up before we get to that point, there's a few more billion to add.

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PirateMk1 said:

The cost of child rearing isn't the problem. People in nations where there is relative plenty just dont want children or only want one or two max.

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