5 Comments

1. wilful

   September 16, 2015

   Fantastic news by China! Now if only we could get similarly effective policy, perhaps with less coercion, in the rest of the world.

   If anyone thinks we can use population growth to make our way out of the problems of the world, you are quite plainly insane.

2. ChrisB

   September 17, 2015

   What's DM? And what's the white unattributed bit, outer space?

   Fantastic news, sort of... but a fall in the rate of increase isn't a fall. And Africa is now as bad as china was.

3. Peter WARWICK

   September 17, 2015

   Chris,
   a decrease in the rate will result in an absolute decrease over time. These things are not instant.

   If you want a very good explanation of population statistics see:
   http://www.gapminder.org/videos/dont-panic-the-facts-about-population/

   Its about one hour long, but its the best explainer I have seen on population. It will take some years for the rate decrease to work its way through the snakes belly.

   Gapminder (Hans ROSLING) has some excellent articles on a wide range of human statistics.

4. ChrisB

   September 18, 2015

   Well, yes. But that's rather like saying "the fever will eventually fall" without specifying whether it'll kill you before it does. The peak is going to be a very risky time. We may just scrape through, or we may not.

5. paul walter

   September 21, 2015

   Some one compares it to Africa, but the cohesiveness of Chinese society shows which region is developing a better standard of living.