ABSTRACT
While there are problems associated with older age structures and numerical declines, there are also compensations. For one thing, the alternatives to these demographic developments are assuredly worse than the developments themselves: higher mortality levels to an extent necessary to halt the trend toward older age structures are unacceptable; none of these countries has much to gain, and all have much to lose, from further numerical increases; and, of course, there are limits to how long a population can go on increasing. Moreover, by affording a period of lessened pressure from numerical increase and, at the same time, incorporating a shift in age distribution in a direction that could be expected to result in lower demands on resources-possibly, even, in less support for the economic growth ethic itself-these demographic changes present at least an opportunity to take significant action conducive to a population’s living in a more sustainable relationship with its environment.
