By Michelle Goldberg
There are two ways to look at world population numbers.
By one measure, the world has grown beyond its capacity. As US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s science adviser, Dr Nina Fedoroff, recently told the BBC: ‘The planet can’t support many more people.’
But in parts of Europe and other developed countries, the problem isn’t too many people but too few: Dwindling birth rates have raised concerns about whether a shrinking pool of young people will be able to maintain the social safety net for the previous generation.