The population crash will kill our economy – which can only be a good thing for the planet

Guardian: As the world's population reaches 7 billion this month, there is renewed soul-searching about overpopulation. But in much of the rich world, we have slammed on the demographic brakes so hard that it may be helping drive our current economic tailspin. It is an intriguing thought. Some believe young populations could be driving everything from the Arab spring to China's economic miracle – and maybe the west's decline too.

Exhibit A is Japan. Economists say the developed world is entering now what Japan first experienced back in the 1990s, when it suffered a "lost decade" of economic stagnation from which it has never recovered. And that, some argue, is because Japan is running out of young adults.

Japan has the world's oldest people – average female life expectancy is 86 years – and it has among the world's lowest fertility rates. At just 1.2 children per woman, it has not much more than half what it needs to maintain population numbers. Meanwhile, the average age is well over 40, and one in four people are over 65.

This is an extraordinary turn-round. Japan used to be young. When it was the poster child of Asia's economies, it profited from a huge population of young adults, and not many old dependents. Those young adults became so busy working that they almost gave up on having babies. Then they grew old. Result: the land of the rising sun has become the land of the setting sun... Read on at http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/oct/26/population-crash-economy-good-planet