Slow Death in the Great Plains - "A sizable swathe of the country's heartland is undergoing a severe drop in births that, if it continues, could empty many small towns in just one generation." [Atlantic Monthly] (July 1, 1997) Climate Change Linked to Civilization Collapse - National Geographic News story about the hypothesis that past climate variations led to the collapse of civilizations, with speculation on the implications for our society's future. The Population Surprise - The old assumptions about world population trends need to be rethought. One thing is clear, in the next century the world is in for some rapid downsizing [Atlantic Monthly] The myth of over-population - "The Japanese island of Oshima is giving us an inkling of what the future may be like. Children are so rare that an old people's home set up dummies of a little boy ... Many schools are empty as there are so few children. As people die, houses are abandoned. Twenty years ago, one village had 500 people; now there are 230; in another twenty years there might be none. ... According to the reporter, "what has happened here will also happen, to one degree or another, throughout Japan - and in many other developed countries." Burying The Big Population Story - "And here's the overwhelming demographic story of our time: Never have birth and fertility rates fallen so far, so fast, so low, for so long, all over the world, yielding populations in decline. That story was buried by the noise of "the population explosion," a powerful trend that peaked decades ago, but which is still promoted by environmental alarmists and their allies in the United Nations." [Jewish World Review] PBS: The Grandchild Gap - "If Italy's fertility will remain at the same level for thirty to forty years, the Italian population will be reduced by one-third." How do we tackle Europe's population problem? - BBC Talking point on the subject. Quotes a russian as saying "So, what is there to do? Nothing - we just have to accept that our civilisation is going to die out " Russia struggles with population crisis - Russia faces a demographic crisis unprecedented in peacetime - violence, alcohol and poor healthcare are among the reasons. [BBC News] Eastern European population to plummet - Population levels in former communist countries are diving because of economic decline, the UN says. [BBC News] Russian population in steep decline - Disease, drug abuse, poverty and depression cause a sharp fall in Russia's population.[BBC News] Scotland's population set to fall - New figures predict that Scotland's population will drop over the next 25 years. [BBC News] The Demographic Bomb - Article describes Arabic views about how the decrease in birth rates in the west will change the population demographics in the area of religious affiliations, especially Islam. Includes an opinion of some the causes of the lower birth rate. Low Fertility Not Politically Sustainable - While for many countries concerns about high birth rates persist, for many other countries the problem now is very low rates of birth. [Population Today] Russia's Modest Migration Gains Unlikely to Stop Population Decline - Discusses some of the issues surrounding the population fall in Russia. [Population Today] (May 1, 2001) How the West was lost - Discussion with Pat Buchanan on "Death of the West". [WorldNetDaily] Experts wrangle over birth dearth - "In fact, no major industrialized country has a fertility rate above 2.1, known as the replacement rate because it is the number of children per woman at which a population replaces itself. The average fertility rate in Europe is 1.45, a rate that could lead, one day, to a severe decline in population. And 22 developing countries have also dropped below this threshold." [NBC News]