Newsflash, the entire global west is sub-replacement and mostly has been for decades. South Korea just hit a stunning, absolutely suicidal TFR of 0.85. And it's only going to get worse.
The implications of high global population are also (with tongue planted firmly in cheek) "suicidal."
With the exception of figuring out how to care for elderly with a declining population, there are many advantages to a declining population. Specifically, the planet only has so many natural resources. We can only pollute so much. If we had significantly less people, things like limited resources and pollution wouldn't be that big of a deal.
> If we had significantly less people, things like limited resources and pollution wouldn't be that big of a deal.
The people the world does have vary in resource consumption and pollution by like 50x (Bahrain vs developing African nations).
How we develop, and the technologies we invent to live sustainably, makes a dramatically bigger difference than how many people we have.
And likely, an inverted age pyramid makes it far, far harder to invent these technologies, as our political systems become gerontocracies, science ossifies, and all our resources are pumped into taking care of the ever-growing elderly.
Newsflash, the entire global west is sub-replacement and mostly has been for decades. South Korea just hit a stunning, absolutely suicidal TFR of 0.85. And it's only going to get worse.