"People in their 20's will see peak world population in their lifetime. It will be fascinating to see how society changes over the decades that follow that."
I am 45. I have fairly big* chance of making the global population curve actually drop!
No, they don't. That's the UN prediction, because they assume that somehow, magically, all countries below replacement will simultaneously, near-instantly increase in fertility rate by huge amounts over the next couple of years. Look at the graphs, they're nonsensical.
If you look at the actual trends of those rates, peak population is ~2050, maybe sooner.
That's the population project, not the fertility projection - which means it will appear smooth. However, I can no longer find the original data I was looking at, so I can't back myself up either.
I am 45. I have fairly big* chance of making the global population curve actually drop!
*OK, not really, but you get the point I hope....