The truth about human population decline | Jennifer D. Sciubba

TED Health

TED

Health & Fitness, Fitness, Shoshana Ungerleider, Medicine, How To Be Healthier, Ted Shoshana, Ted Talks Health

4.2 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 23 January 2024

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

With birth rates falling, the worldwide human population is getting older and smaller. According to traditional thinking, this spells a future of labor shortages, bankrupt social security systems and overall economic collapse. Before you panic about the end of life as we know it, political demographer Jennifer D. Sciubba has a thoughtful playbook for managing the new normal — including ideas on the future of work and migration — and a reminder that a resilient future relies on present-day action.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ted Audio Collective. Hey there. It's your host Dr. Shoshana Ungerlider. We've reached a
0:19.6	milestone of over 8 billion people on earth. It's a big jump, more than double what it used to be in the 1960s.
0:28.0	Yet intriguingly, our global population's growth rate is actually slowing down.
0:35.8	This phenomenon, which began in the 1960s, marks a significant shift in the age and size of Earth's inhabitants and it's reshaping our
0:45.8	understanding of demographics. In her enlightening Ted 2023 talk, political
0:51.8	demographer Jennifer Schuba navigates us through this evolving demographic
0:56.7	landscape.
0:58.1	She inspires us to view our aging and shrinking world as an opportunity for a grand adventure, emphasizing
1:06.8	creativity and sustainability.
1:10.3	Tune in to discover how we can craft a future that maximizes the CBC Podcast, the dose. Each week we answer health topics in a smart and sometimes counterintuitive way you won't hear anywhere else.
1:34.5	Like what's the least amount of exercise I can do to get the benefits?
1:38.2	Which psychedelics can improve my mental health?
1:40.8	And how can I check for cancer if I don't have a family doctor?
1:44.0	Top experts help me bring you what you need to know in plain language in about 20 minutes.
1:50.0	Find the dose on the CBC Listen app, or wherever you get your podcast.
1:54.8	Astronomers tell us that when we look to the night sky,
1:57.8	we're actually looking back in time.
2:01.0	Light from those faraway stars take so long to reach our eyes here on Earth
2:04.8	that by the time we wish upon a particular star it may no longer even exist.
2:10.4	I'm here to tell you the population of Earth is a lot like those stars.
2:16.0	In parts of the globe, the human population is already or will soon be shrinking.
2:21.0	I know what you're thinking, and total population is still growing from 8 billion today to a peak of probably 9 or 10 billion
	...

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