PROSPECTS FOR NEW HORMONAL MALE CONTRACEPTIVES

There is no more fundamental threat to the human race than its own burgeoning numbers. Overpopulation is a paramount global crisis, as it underlies virtually all major worldwide problems. Poverty, malnutrition, resource depletion, pollution, global warming, species extinction, and even warfare are all fueled by overcrowding. Having amassed its first five billion members over 200 millennia, our race now expands by nearly one billion people per decade.(162) In the traditional demographic transition, populations swell as achievements in public health lower mortality rates.(131) Growth eventually ceases when birth rates also fall because of cultural evolution. This process has been completed by most industrialized nations. If currently developing countries proceed unchecked through an expansion phase commensurate with that of Western Europe, however, it is feared that their immense numbers will overwhelm the capacity of their natural resources. Renewed high death rates from irrevocable environmental destruction may ultimately forge a morbid equilibrium.(102) This process is known as the demographic trap. It is thus imperative that proliferation be curbed by expediting reductions in fertility. The unparalleled present growth rate makes this an issue of the utmost urgency. Hastening the population plateau by even a few years would substantially reduce the burden that our planet must bear into the future.