Agreed. I've always wondered why everyone freaks out at information like that contained in the article. Controlled, natural decline in my mind is good because

Agreed. I've always wondered why everyone freaks out at information like that contained in the article. Controlled, natural decline in my mind is good because there is simply too many people on the planet. The options for addressing that can be lumped into either 1) having society formally or informally agree to depopulate through choices, culture, law, etc. or 2) killing people. No sane person wants #2. So if there is a natural/cultural shift that is moving toward depopulation that's a huge win because the other options are doing something similar to China's previous one child policy or some other method of forcing or providing incentives to have fewer children. As long as society is aware of the trend we can plan accordingly. Demographically, we'll be looking more like Japan, but I don't necessarily see the intrinsic harm in that. The planet has a fixed mass and fixed resources. We can't keep playing this game of "infinite growth forever!" in every aspect of the economy. As the saying goes, "that which cannot continue, will not continue."