Population Decline

There are soon to be 8 billion of us and counting. Yet while the world's population is still growing fast overall, in many countries, the numbers are [blank] or will do soon. The population of China will begin to fall soon and could halve by 2100. India's will peak around 2050. The US population would fall by the 2030s if not for immigration. So there are two [blank] issues to deal with: rapid population growth in some nations and population declines in others. Many see limiting population growth as vital for tackling various environmental catastrophes unfolding [blank] the world, as we report on in our article "What will a population of 8 billion people mean for us and the planet?" Yet for wealthy Westerners to call for lower-income countries to control their populations simply in the name of protecting nature is hypocritical in the extreme, given that the rich have vastly larger environmental footprints. What's more, [blank] is often more than a whiff of racism to such calls.