Of all the doomsday predictions about our planetary future from the 1960s and 1970s, perhaps none was so wrong as the fear about overpopulation. The reality has proven to be just as alarming, if for the opposite reason: In every region of the world except Africa, population levels have begun to level off due to declining birthrates.
Earlier this week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis officially threw his hat into the ring for next year’s U.S. presidential election. Fashioning himself as a credible challenger to Trump, his entrance into the race all but guarantees that the migration crisis on the United States’ southern border will figure centrally in the campaign.
For the past year, leaders of the Global South have resisted Western pressure to take a tougher position against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by seeking to broaden the discussion to include a global order they see as being built on—and perpetuating—political and economic inequities. It seems that effort may be bearing fruit.
