In Brief The world is facing an overpopulation crisis that is only set to become more severe: the UN has predicted the global population will reach 9.7 billion by 2050. Thus far, proposed solutions to overcrowding on Earth has proven to be a knotty ethical problem. Musks Warning

Arecent article inNew Scientistgot the attention of Elon Musk on Twitter this week, prompting him to tweet out the link.

The article argues that decreasing fertility rates are indicative of the worlds population slowly imploding rather than exponentially rising a trend that will continue until we reach some form of crisis point. As it stands, half of the worlds countries have fallen below the replacement rate for developed nations (which is, on average,2 children per woman).If this trend continues on, countries like Germany and Italy will see their populations decrease by half over the next 60 years.

This is not the first time Elon Musk has discussed overpopulation: in March he warned that we face a demographic implosion, because in many countries you have a very high dependency ratio, where the number of people who are retired is very high relative to the number of people who are net producers.

The world isfacing an overpopulation crisis that is only set to become more severe:the UN haspredicted theglobal population will reach9.7 billion by 2050. In recent years therehave been a number of somewhat apocalyptic predictions and statements made by high profile members of the scientific community:David Attenboroughissued a warning in a 2013 Radio Times interview, saying thateither we limit our population growth, or the natural world will do it for us.

Population affectsevery resource imaginable: from our planets stores of energy and environment to the financial sector, to the amount of food we need to produce, and issues likegeographical overcrowding. As for theissue of limiting population, its proven to be aknotty ethical problem.So far, none of the proposed answers to itsuch as introducing a limited child policy, moving to new planets, or introducing a child tax have beenparticularly attractive or easily executable.

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Elon Musk: The World's Population is Accelerating Towards Collapse - Futurism