As pointed out in email

[james_davis_nicoll]

India’s declining fertility rate, now only slightly higher than that of the United States, is part of a global trend of lower population growth. Yet the media and many educated Americans have entirely missed this major development, instead sticking to erroneous perceptions about inexorable global population growth that continue to fuel panicked rhetoric about everything from environmental degradation and immigration to food and resource scarcity.

In a recent exercise, most of my students believed that India’s total fertility rate (TFR) was twice that of the United States. Many of my colleagues believed the same. In actuality, it is only 2.5, barely above the estimated U.S. rate of 2.1 in 2011, and essentially the replacement level.

Comments

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Being realistic, I see the problem of failure of political will coupled to the time required to effect change before things get bad.

Likewise, I don't see New York or the East Coast gearing up all that fast for Sandy II, III or IV.

Frankly, I'm astounded that London actually built the flood barrier ahead of a massive flood event in central London.