October 12, 2021

For the environment, our peak population will be a nightmare. This page explores alternatives for the future of population, and the possibility that the current peak population will be the last time there are ever this many humans on Earth.

Population Explosion: How did we get to 8 billion people?

Humanity has just experienced a population explosion. Whether you study population or believe we are overpopulated or not, the facts are that we have just had a population explosion.

Over two centuries of population reaching 50x higher than the historical long-term population growth, and even peaking at 100x higher than historical averages.

Yet thought explosion including during the baby boom, women were having less babies than ever before, and as the number keeps falling the boom is ending.

So, what caused the boom, why was there a population explosion even when birth rates were falling? Could our population grow until we are living life like battery hens, or birth-rates keep falling leading to population collapse?

Population & Immigration

Population & immigration: Conflict and deception.

Immigration is short-term symptom of a potential long-term problem of the challenges to targeting an ideal population. We live an overpopulated planet where many governments use immigration to boost what would be otherwise falling population numbers while blaming 'illegals' for the very real negative consequences for their citizens from the boost to the population. It can be argued that reaching sustainability would address the question of overpopulation, but what would it take to end the need for deception, resolve the conflict, and have everyone work towards the conditions experienced in the countries with highest levels of happiness?

Paradox Resolved: Parents wanting best for children drives falling birth rates, not women’s education.

Commenced: March 6, 2021 Updated: April 6th, 2024

2024 April 6 : Added debunking myth humans coped with high population growth future "The Population Bomb" feared.

Surprisingly, humanity is at 'peak child' and looks to be heading to population stability. The population explosion may arguably have left us with an overpopulated planet, but the explosion is ending, due to 'births' per woman falling from over 6 prior to 1900, and to around 2.2 in 2022. Some Economists panic about that and fear humans 'leaving peak population' and correcting to a lower population, even though that could benefit most of us. When first analysing the population explosion, I found a paradox as popular explanations for the fall in birth-rates like the "education of women" and other coincidence theories simply don't fit all the data. No, the Taliban are not onto something, as the real best answer is that people are motivated to have the number of children to give those children the best life possible in environment and situation, which may require environmental security and reducing inequality to limit the economist nightmare of further falls in birthrates.

Peak Child: When, and what does it mean?

Commenced: May 25, 2016 Updated: February 26th, 2024

2024 Feb 26 : Update in progress.

Globally, peak child arrived just a few years after this was first published, although this global picture is not experience at every individual location. Data now clearly confirms that globally, the world has returned to 'peak child', ending of three centuries of a population explosion, and perhaps even millennia of more gradual growth prior to the explosion. Return to peak child means we could either return to the gradual growth levels of prior to the industrial revolution or become a mature species and exist in balance with nature and other living things. Perhaps even stop displacing other species?

Why population growth even before the explosion?

Commenced: August 21, 2022 Updated: August 15th, 2022

2022 August 15: First published.

Throughout history, although no other species on Earth has experienced such long term overall population growth, even before the recent population explosion, the human population kept slowly growing. Yes, we recently had an unprecedented population explosion, driven by the near elimination of previously tragic rate of infant mortality, but against a background of more gradual long-term growth, many of us may have never even realised we just had a population explosion. But what drove that long-term population growth even before the explosion, and what will now happen as the explosion ends?

Peak Population: Well, until the next population explosion.

Commenced: October 12, 2021 Updated: February 12th, 2022

2022 February 12: Minor update

One Finite Planet

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Topics and Subtopics.

Peak Population: Well, until the next population explosion.

Population Explosion: How did we get to 8 billion people?

Population & immigration: Conflict and deception.

Paradox Resolved: Parents wanting best for children drives falling birth rates, not women’s education.

Peak Child: When, and what does it mean?

Why population growth even before the explosion?

Peak Population: Well, until the next population explosion.