AIBU The global fertility crisis is the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced?

Yup. This! The OP only wants to hear one side.

Exactly.

Yes, there could be measures like the province of Quebec here in Canada did when they noticed falling birthrates decades ago. They started giving out bonuses for each child and huge child tax credits.

But you can’t just keep expanding and expanding the population to keep propping up the higher amount of aging people. You run out of resources. Food space clean safe water.

Then as expected people turn on people more than we currently have fighting for what little there is left or you let the balance work itself out where there is a few years of oh shit old people cost more than they ever paid without enough younger to fully fund and then a new normal begins.

"Birth rates have fallen so quickly in most countries that pensions & elderly care will no longer be provided by the state in our lifetime. Just think about what that means- your DCs starving & dying in cardboxes on the pavements."

🙄

Can I cynically point out that if the population decline were to be reversed, there would be more of us dying in unpleasant circumstances in future, because of massive and seemingly intractable inequality and climate change. Not that it doesn't matter that there are fewer people heading for that fate potentially, but rather: we need to sort out wealth distribution and the environment. Those are the issues, not how many kids a woman chooses not to have.

There's definitely too many people on the planet & climate change shows that we cannot sustain the population we have now (which is still growing)
A decline in fertility is probably a good thing.

It hasn’t proved your point though. Most agree the population going up still causes its own problems.

Which I think you’re overlooking.

All true and it's our own damn fault. What do you suggest we do about it?

I’ve experienced infertility,never had a child, survived and am now thriving.

Who do you think proved your point OP? It seems no one agrees with that nonsense 'article' or that the planet needs more humans.

I think the OP is overly sensationalist.

The changing make up of demographics is going to cause issues in lots of counties. Japan is one example that is ahead of the curve there.

For example, in the UK, we probably won’t have enough working people to sustain benefits like the state pension.

But the idea this is a terminal decline is for the birds. Countries will adopt policy to encourage births.

The idea that the current population is sustainable is also not really the case. We are consuming everything. It could easily be a couple of billion less. It will be a bumpy road getting there.

I know @Myrobalanna. We're being lectured about turning the heating up enough to stay warm while the world is being blown to pieces by a few rich men. I hate to imagine what it's doing to the planet

Overpopulation is still very much an issue, even more so because of climate change. If the human race dies out it will more likely be because of that, not infertility. I think we messed up this planet and we're getting what we deserve for it. All the toxins we put in the environment may well be the reason for lower fertility. I would not say YABU though. You feel the way you feel and that's okay. It is a legit concern.

A drop in population is probably a good thing for the planet, however because of how our society is set up, its need for tax payers it will be a difficult transition.

I think we are forgetting that mass suffering is a result of the concentration of resources in the hands of very few - certainly deranged - people (men). Pretty sure the population could decline gently (or not) with no suffering at all if they would behave.

*total not royal

Perhaps the powers that be are more concerned that fewer humans = fewer consumers = less profits?

Same
🤣

I’m not worried about royal population. There is no shortage of people. I am worried that only religious nutcases have children and that this will drag us away from liberal democracy and light-touch religion towards a world torn apart by religious fanatics. This is at the extreme end of all religions, but if we take the Abrahamic faiths, you can see that the extreme versions all limit women’s choices snd opportunities. Then you have the Shia Muslim extremists who run Iran and believe that it is necessary to eradicate all Jewish people to bring about the coming of the Mahdi. By contrast there are extreme Jews who believe that the messiah will not come until the Islamic mosques are removed from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, which would obviously bring about conflict and loss of life. Obviously there is no guarantee that the children of religious extremists grow up to believe the same extreme things, but there’s a strong correlation.

Exactly. This is what the whole thing boils down to.
Other options for women and reliable contraception are absolutely central to this.

That's why I get very twitchy when you hear politicians and the press banging on about birthrate. It's to do with economic growth and control of the (female) population for them - it really isn't about their concern about who is going to wipe our bums when we're in nursing homes.

Look at the amount of human suffering, over consumption of resources, world wars, environmental damage. A bit of population decline overall would be a good thing. The problem is that we end up with a bulge of older people and a lack of younger people to look after them.

I agree. I mean I don’t want the population to keep going up but wishing collapse on next generations seems awful. Idk how far in advance the pp means, but out dc or their’s. And even then we tend to care about the next generation if we have dc.

Why do you care? Honest question.

There are 8 billion people and plenty of countries that are so over populated they struggle to feed themselves. It’s good this is slowing down? Surely?

Global crisis? - Africa's population is projected to double by 2070. Expect to hear a lot more about the African diaspora.