h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I just found the most obscure and overlooked entry: A499845

Yes, that is a very obscure article...

But I quite like it. I also stumbled accross this little gem: A789195 I particularly like the part about Malek. So much so, he's now in my novel.

Although the author of that last entry did get a bit testy in the threads.

Good name actually

I could see that... The first bit is based on fact, studied it in geography. The global population is due to plummet though, which should stable things out.

Is it really due to plummet? Is this the dreaded 'population crash' or is it simply because the global birthrate is falling?

Quite an interesting topic, do you study it?

Crash in all senses, given a bit of time....

Birthrate in UK down to around 1.9 last time I looked.... has to be around 2.14 in order to maintain the population. In Italy it's down to 0.8 I think..

China is about to decline population size as well...

Then there's AIDs, becoming a huge problem in Africa. In some countries the number of people who are HIV possitive is 40%...

I don't study it anymore, well, only bits. Did it at A-level geography however.

The guess is that global population will peak at about 10 billion (possibly), then fall from there.

I suppose a breakthrough in gerontalogical treatments would really f*ck things up. Probably many decades, if not centuries away though.

Italy is 0.8? I thought they were like rabbits.