Japanese town solves reduced fertility rate:
https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2018/12/28/news-stream-intv-ripley-jozuka-japan-town-paying-for-babies.cnn
It's unfortunate that short-sighted governments see population as a sort of "arms race." My original degree was in biology, and we learned about the concept of "carrying capacity" in ecosystems. The CC of homo sapiens is 2-3 billion people, for a sustainable population with a decent quality of life, minimizing destruction of ecosystems, preserving wild areas where we can rest our minds and recharge, etc.
So it really makes sense to let the process of dropping population happen, especially in countries that are extremely crowded, like Japan. Sheer numbers are no longer needed for economic or military power, thanks to automation and AI innovation. And extreme population density also means great vulnerability if supply chains are ever disrupted that bring in food and heating fuel and so on.
Even here in the U.S., with much lower population density, there is already a marked decline in the quality of life as the most congenial climates fill in with urban sprawl. When even wild places become jammed with traffic and garbage, we have lost something precious. And, of course, population growth systematically undoes every gain in fuel efficiency and water conservation and so on. I can remember when the Colorado front range area was a pleasant place to get away, back in the sixties. Now it's mostly sprawl, full of people who drive as if they've been driven completely insane by the crowding and stress. And the people who seem to have the most children also appear to be the stupidest and the least likely to pass on any rational values about taking care of spaceship Earth.
Poll
5 (45.5%)