If during his last days American biologist Paul Ehrlich had followed events in Singapore, he would have heard something remarkable. Fertility fell to a record low last year, confounding efforts to shore it up. Politicians described the development as an existential challenge.
Ehrlich, who saw population control as vital to humanity’s viability amid a deteriorating environment, was proven wrong. No...
The narrative presents a stark contrast between Ehrlich’s dire warnings of overpopulation and today’s concerns about population decline, framing it as a dramatic reversal of fortune. The strongest version of this argument is that demographic trends are unpredictable, and policies must adapt to shifting realities rather than rigid ideologies. However, the piece leans into a binary framing—overpopulation vs. underpopulation—that risks oversimplifying the complexities of demographic change. It also...