For years now I’ve been oddly fascinated by falling global fertility, which will before long (in some places is already beginning to) lead to population decline. The shift is usually attributed to growing wealth, education, and women’s autonomy, but I’m not convinced that all the facts are in. Certainly we’re seeing it in many places we don’t think of as especially modern. Might this be a Children of Men scenario?
This article highlights the “rewilding” already happening in Japan and parts of Europe: Abandoned towns, expanding forests, re-appearance of large carnivores in formerly settled areas – a picture with an attractive side, despite the serious economic problems that come with population stagnation and decline.
A vision of the future, perhaps, in a post-peak world: smaller populations crowding ever more tightly into urban centres. And outside, beyond the city limits, the wild animals prowling.