Oh baby! DO we really need more babies?

• Author: Thomson, James W.
• Position: The World Today - Global overpopulation dilemma

DO WE REALLY want more babies? Doesn't our uncertain world already have too many warm bodies? What about those population disaster scenarios by Paul Ehrlich and the Club of Rome's scientists four decades ago: they solemnly predicted that the global demographic boom would engulf the entire planet in mass starvation and environmental catastrophe?

In The Population Bomb, Ehrlich warned that millions of people were destined to die from starvation in the near future and that it already was too late to save them. The computer driven methodology used by the Club of Rome generated results that were equally dismal. Clearly, those 1960s doomster reports not only were alarmist, but wrong. However, they did reflect the awareness of the Malthusian overpopulation dilemma since, by the 1960s, the global population was increasing at the greatest amounts in human history. Since then, the world's population has continued to increase, but at decreasing rates--and concerns about a population crisis have diminished.

Still, many Americans have not yet gotten over their fear of a Malthusian dystopia--Rev. Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) of England warned of overcrowding in "An Essay on the Principle of Population"--as evidenced by former Vice Pres. Al Gore's Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit eco-disaster vision--which eventually earned him a Nobel Prize and Academy Award for "An Inconvenient Truth." Adding to the overpopulation disaster chorus are many recent publications from the United Nations Population Fund. Yet, all of these bleak forecasts missed the turning point in global population growth. Ironically enough, that occurred some 40 years ago, almost exactly when many of those Cassandra-sounding studies were released to public acclaim.

Yes, the world really does need more babies. In terms of hot-button issues, the Malthusian hysteria is over and a new topic--the global fertility implosion--has become a vital policy concern. Population growth rates have stagnated of declined to below replacement rates in almost every developed country, including Japan, Russia, China, and all the European nations. Moreover, the same phenomenon has occurred in several developing societies in Southeast Asia and Latin America. Interestingly, Mexico, the source of millions of immigrants to the U.S. over the last 50 years, is approaching the replacement level and Mexican immigration has slowed down. In the Islamic world, from North Africa to Bangladesh, population...