Population Growth Headed for Turn-Around

The Earth's capacity to sustain human population growth depends largely upon the natural ecosystem's ability to simply sustain human life. It is not the number of human beings that threatens the Earth's balance, so much as the destructive habits and practices of human beings. The popular conception that populations are growing exponentially all over the world is a fallacy. Though the United States has reached the 300 million milepost, many countries are actually experiencing population shrinkage. In fact, as more nations are comprised of increasingly aged societies, it is population shortage that now worries demographic experts.

Though the overall global population has not completed its cycle of increase, an unforeseen demographic phenomena is taking place all over the world. Many country's native born are not reproducing at a rate fast enough to replace themselves. These countries include Russia, Japan, Canada, Western and Eastern Europe, clusters of Latin America, parts of India, and even the United States. China is not reproducing at a rate high enough to replace current populations, and because of the long term consequence of population controls and female infanticide, as well as the high rate of suicide among Chinese women, Chinese men of a marrying age will outnumber women by up to 50 million in the next decade. Populations in China are forecasted to undergo a staggering decline in the immediate years to come.