Nice post, I found it encouraging. Have you seen any of the Hans Rosling TED talks? They're quite good. It's well apparent that so many of our current societal ills can be curbed and even eradicated by the empowerment of women. I know we've come a long ways in western civilization, but we still have some work to do. Places like Afghanistan, Sudan and the DRC are so incredibly far behind in this sense that it makes me wonder what they'll look like in 50 years from a population standpoint?
From the article: Hans Rosling's video are massively influential to me. I feel like he has a fantastic grasp on the future of human demography. In terms of the development of Afghanistan, Sudan, and DRC, those countries represent the biggest challenges. Certainly by 2050 they will not be at the development level of China, India, Brazil, Russia, Nigeria, Ghana, and Turkey. However, they will be much improved. There are several technologies on the horizon that will help the entire world essentially erase infant mortality and many easily curable communicable diseases that still plague the developing world. And as those countries urbanize with the rest of the world, widespread female education should become more and more common.Statistician Hans Rosling has calculated that all of these scenarios are probable. I agree. If current economic development trends continue we should expect the average person's income in India and China (for example) to reach the same levels of the U.K., U.S.A., and Japan by 2048. Check out Rosling's TED talk on this: Asia's rise – how and when.
I read the bit about Rosling but didn't catch the TED shout-out. My bad. I wonder what role the diminishing influence of religion has on the population curb? "Go forth and maketh babies and baptise them in the blood of our savior that they might too bring forth the seed of god". Catholics are famous for large families. Grow the flock! I made up that bit of verse. My guess is that something analogous is in the bible somewhere... :)
I'm not really sure what direct influence religion has on these trends. But I can say that ridiculing the pope for preventing the distribution of condoms in Africa is justified. We must make sure that all methods of contraception are easily attainable and widely used throughout the world. They help people plan how many offspring they want. And most educated people in urban settings opt for smaller families. The faster we can stabilize the world population the better.
I grew up going to catholic school with some affluent families that were on average, pretty large. -Not a very scientific data set, just my personal experience. Your point isn't lost on me though.