In reply to Phil1919:
> (In reply to wintertree)
> [...]
> I don't see evidence of that. Most high birth rates are connected to third world countries where women don't have control of their lives.
It's 1.98 per woman in the UK. Combined with increasing life expectancy that puts us in net population growth, even before we add net inwards migration. As plenty of people have less than 2 kids that leaves a subset of people having more than 2. Selfishly over-breeding has far more environmental connetations that everything someone can do to reduce their footprint on the world, up to and including shooting themselves - your children will go on p use more resources than you, and their children etc.
We will all pay a heavy price for unchecked growth, even in the first world. Access to resources becoming more expensive, more people (by number and fraction) living on little boxes in cities, more curbs on freedom at the government level, more unrest etc
The problem seems to be an economic model based on a population ponzi scheme. It can't end well.