Commentary
The 21st century is going to be overshadowed by a crisis that human beings have never faced before. I don’t mean war, pestilence, famine or climate change. Those are perennial troubles. Yes, even climate change, despite the hype, is nothing new as anyone who’s heard of the Roman Warm Period, the Mediaeval Warm Period, or the Little Ice Age will know. Climate change and the others are certainly problems, but they aren’t new.
But the crisis that’s coming is new.
The global decline in fertility rates has grown so severe that some demographers now talk about “peak humanity”—a looming maximum from which the world’s population will begin to rapidly decline. Though the doomsayers who preach the dangers of overpopulation may think that’s a good development, it is in fact a grave concern….