For the last 40+ years we’ve been told that the world is overpopulated and we have a crisis on our hands. But now, with fertility rates falling through the floor in virtually every corner of the world, the population control fanatics have to alter their message and their tactics. Now their message is: “Yes, fertility rates are falling, but we still have what demographers refer to as “population momentum” causing the population to continue to grow.” They view that as a huge problem that warrants continued population control programs.
So what’s this “momentum” thing? Here’s a basic explanation: There are enough women, already born, who will probably bear children that the world’s population will continue upward to an unsustainable level. But what the population control fanatics don’t address is what happens when the population momentum stops and population growth rates become negative and go into a steep free fall. That moment is estimated to happen sometime in the next 30-40 years. Population free fall is happening in some countries right now.
Here’s a simple analogy. Consider a car running down the highway and it starts up a hill. If you turn the car off, it will continue up the hill with momentum carrying it forward until it eventually comes to a halt. Then very quickly it will start to move backwards and pick up speed. That “hill” is declining fertility rates worldwide. Once the forward momentum ends you end up a precarious situation very quickly and so will the world’s people. The downward trajectory of fertility rates is seen in all but a few countries that have extenuating circumstances like extreme poverty, very corrupt government, and internal strife. Falling fertility rates, by the way, have proven notoriously difficult to reverse.
But that knowledge doesn’t stop the population control groups for whom reducing population has become an endless quest – in fact their “religion”- from continuing to try to massage the numbers to give an appearance of a huge population problem. These groups have built large organizations with lots of people who have jobs and plenty of government funding coming their way. There are a lot of population control “businesses” involved and none of them want their gravy train to go away.
Population Research Institute’s Steven Mosher outlines well the population controllers’ most recent efforts in his article “New Numbers, Same Old Song.” Take a couple of minutes and read through it. You’ll be much better prepared to educate those who insist that humans are reproducing like rabbits and will ruin the planet if not stopped.