I'd have to go back and look at the figures but I was under the distinct impression that fertility rates were declining everywhere. The population trends may well be as this author states, but I seem to recall reading that this point about fertility rates declining was being kicked around because demographers previously thought fertility rates were linked to income, and now they don't think it is..

I don't have time to check myself but someone else may have more insight into the debates..

A great article, which highlights what some of us have been saying for the last 30 years. If only we had acted 30 years ago, but even now we don't address the problem at the political level as is pointed out, for fear of upsetting the Catholic Church. Its a scandal, it really is.

The author states "Pinched funding for family planning and reproductive health reflects larger obstacles to a sustainable world population".

This may be true, but unfortunately he takes a very simplistic view of things.

The planet as a whole is already in overshoot.

Sustainable is a word that has no relevance or meaning in our real world.

For a realist like me, the writing has been on the wall for a long time.

We are what we are and we will do what we do, despite policy decisions by governments, our innate self is sewing the seed of our own species destruction.

It won't happen in my lifetime but the evidence is just to obvious to ignore.

Family planning will do nothing, we have already crossed the 'event horizon' on too many things needed to sustain our species on a planet as finite as ours.

Energy is going to be the key in how the entire industrial world we live in falls apart, despite the ponzi shale gas and oil plays that have been touted as the worlds energy saviour. Nuclear will also not be a saviour. We are on the cusp of a great turning, particularly for anyone living in the first world. Ponzi finance is coming home to roost and we all will feel the rebound effects.

I thank my lucky stars that I do not and will not need the industrial economy to maintain my current lifestyle, other than a little bit of technology that allows me to post here and elsewhere.

Delusion seems to be running rampant and humans, as a species, are becoming more and more deluded by the day.

Curmudgeon,
When I was at Uni, global population was about 3 billion and growing at about 1.8% pa, so about 55 million more mouths per year. Thankfully, that growth rate has declined to 1.1% today, but with 7.1 billion people, the expansion is now 80 million per year on that larger base. That is 25 million more each year than 40 years ago.
The planet sees total foot print over all humans and doesn't care about growth rates its the number of additional feet that makes up the total footprint.
Its easy to lie with statistics as some alarmists do, saying that population growth rate is falling, but the fact is that there has never been a time when human population has expanded by a larger number of people each year than at present.

The fact about all populations, humans included, is that they can only expand as long as there are sufficient resources. Anyone subjectively claiming there are "too many people" is missing the point. Organisations or academics don't determine whether we have too many people or not, that is done by the availability of resources, the spread of disease, climatic conditions, availability of healthcare, economic conditions etc. All species have periods of increase and decrease dependent on resource availability. The bottom line is if there is sufficient food and other resources for 10 billion then we will have 10 billion. Humans are a successful species which will continue to increase in numbers for the forseeable future, regardless of what environmentalists say.

Atman's comments on population rising to meet the available resources would be appropriate if humans were yeast, but we are not.

Humans are the only species to have developed an intellect and a consciousness of who we are in time and space. Any other life form would behave as Atman suggests. Rabbits, rats, prickly pears, cane toads etc all follow Atman's rules.
The question is, are humans capable of breaking that biological bond? The selfish gene if you like.
The evidence suggest that we can. In about 42 countries, the human population is stable or declining. Fertility rates of well below Australia's 1.9 are common, so with its intellect, this species Homo Sapiens, is capable of choosing to live within its limits.