New data predicts an “empty planet.”
But a new book examines the data and comes to a radically different conclusion: instead of continuing to rise, the population will level out in about 30 years — and then start to decline, possibly forever.
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The book is called “Empty Planet,” and it was written by journalist John Ibbitson and political scientist Darrell Bricker. Their key argument: access to information is changing people’s outlook on reproduction around the world and rapidly shifting the old norms around families and fertility.
“We polled 26 countries asking women how many kids they want, and no matter where you go the answer tends to be around two,” Ibbitson said in a new interview with Wired. “The external forces that used to dictate people having bigger families are disappearing everywhere. And that’s happening fastest in developing countries.”
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