Maybe . . .

As a boy, we heard a lot about the so-called "population bomb," a term used to describe apocalyptic predictions that without drastic action to curtail birthrates around the world, we would face mass starvation by the mid-80s. It was a bomb that didn't explode according to predictions as birthrates then declined in what some identify as one of the most significant demographic developments in human history. From the perspective of today, we can see that global population growth peaked at about 2.1 percent annually in the late 60s, then began a rapid decline, falling to 1.08 percent by 2019.There are many reasons that this happened, including the empowerment of girls and women, better access to contraception, declining infant mortality rates, urbanization, rising prosperity, changing cultural expectations, government policies, and, probably, to a certain degree, the apocalyptic predictions themselves, which likely caused at least some people to not want to bring children into a world of…

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