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Summary: Global demographics in the twenty-first century will be defined by steep declines in fertility rates. Many countries will see their populations shrink and age. But relatively high fertility rates and immigration levels in the United States, however, may mean that it will emerge with a stronger hand.

Richard Jackson's new index. Use for discussion of population and aging with breakdown of specific countries.

Increasing the retirement age is inevitable and better than the alternatives.

A gray tsunami is sweeping the planet -- and not just in the places you expect. How did the world get so old, so fast?

This site discusses the growing elderly population in the U.S. and around the world. It also describes why this is happening, and how gender and racial trends are related to an aging population.

Renowned\ninventor Kurzweil (The Age of Spiritual Machines) may be technology's most credibly\nhyperbolic optimist. Elsewhere he has argued that eliminating fat intake can prevent\ncancer; here, his quarry is the future of consciousness and intelligence. Humankind, it\nruns, is at the threshold of an epoch ("the singularity," a reference to the theoretical\nlimitlessness of exponential expansion) that will see the merging of our biology with the\nstaggering achievements of "GNR" (genetics, nanotechnology and robotics) to create a\nspecies of unrecognizably high intelligence, durability, comprehension, memory and so\non. The word "unrecognizable" is not chosen lightly: wherever this is heading, it won't look like us. Kurzweil's argument is necessarily twofold: it's not enough to argue that\nthere are virtually no constraints on our capacity; he must also convince readers that\nsuch developments are desirable. In essence, he conflates the wholesale transformation\nof the species with "immortality," for which read a repeal of human limit. In less capable\nhands, this phantasmagoria of speculative extrapolation, which incorporates a\nbewildering variety of charts, quotations, playful Socratic dialogues and sidebars, would\nbe easier to dismiss. But Kurzweil is a true scientist-a large-minded one at that-and\ngives due space both to "the panoply of existential risks" as he sees them and the many\npresumed lines of attack others might bring to bear. What's arresting isn't the degree to\nwhich Kurzweil's heady and bracing vision fails to convince-given the scope of his\nprojections, that's inevitable-but the degree to which it seems downright plausible.\n(Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights\nreserved.)

* Released April, 2008 * Running time: 92 min * Description: In this documentary several of the world's experts on climate change and sustainability are interviewed including: former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking, progressive CEO Ray Anderson, and scientist and activist David Suzuki. It contains wonderful video footage and a very high production value. It is hosted by Leonardo DiCaprio and it appears to be intended for a younger, college-age, audience. In this documentary they discuss both the science and philosophy of the future of our planet. It starts off a bit depressing, but ends with some practical ways for individuals to enact change. * Rating: Excellent: Students rated The 11th Hour as their favorite video of the semester. * 7-Revolutions Section: Resources, Population, Technology

America won the Cold War because Americans embraced a set of strategic principles and pursued them steadily, decade after decade. Here's the outline of a "containment" strategy for the age of terror.