Every year, around 140 million babies
are born worldwide.
And if we continue at this pace,
Fifty years from now, the global population
will reach 10.5 billion people.
The world might get a little bit crowded.
So let's ban all babies
for the next 50 years.
As crazy as it may sound,
fertility rates worldwide
are already decreasing.
More and more people
decide to be childfree.
If all humans suddenly stopped
having babies forever,
our species would be extinct
within a hundred years.
But what if we just
paused all new births for half that time?
Would we still be able
to survive as a species?
Putting a stop to procreation
would surely change life
as we know it.
The majority of people
still want to have babies.
If you were one of them, for you,
this baby ban might cause emotional pain.
The tension between those who want
and those who don’t want to have children
could escalate
and lead to a huge conflict.
There would be a risk that with nothing
to represent the future of our species,
everyone would start to do
whatever they want.
We wouldn't need to face the people
who will inherit the planet,
so why not let ourselves loose?
There would also be huge
economic consequences.
Just think about how many people
are in charge of keeping
children safe, fed and educated.
If the last babies for 50 years were born
in 2022,
well, there would still be a need
for all these workers for about 15 years.
But after that,
everything that has to do with children
would no longer be necessary.
Entire industries would shut down.
Millions of jobs would be lost.
But not all would be
negative in a world without procreation.
No kids would also mean
you could save some money.
And if everyone did that,
well, the world could have a better
welfare system.
If you didn't have to pay
for your kid's clothes, food and college,
well, you’d have more income for yourself.
You might even see a boost in equality.
If women no longer
had the societal pressure
of caring for babies,
they could invest more time
in their own lives and careers.
And the environment would hugely benefit
from this too.
That's because the demands for water
and food would continue to decrease.
Yeah, if no babies were born for 50 years,
the population of planet Earth
would drop to around five billion people.
This is about the same global population
as we had in 1987.
But let’s not
forget the ban wouldn’t last forever.
Once the 50 years were over
and we started having babies again,
the world would become chaotic.
Yeah, remember how I said
140 million babies are born every year?
Well, those newborns
would now be responsible
for repopulating
what was left of the human race.
And now the youngest woman on Earth
would be 50.
And at the age of 50,
the chance of conceiving
naturally is only 1%.
So instead of 140 million babies,
we'd likely
only have 700,000 in the first year.
But if we spent those 50 years
developing in vitro fertilization treatments
we could have about 60 million children.
That’s a bit more comforting.
There would be many health risks
for these babies and their mothers too.
Because of the age of pregnancy,
there would be an increased risk
for miscarriage.
Mothers would likely undergo
cesarean delivery.
And having older fathers could result
in children
with an increased chance
of birth defects,
some types of cancers
and even schizophrenia.
Babies would also be at risk
of having learning disabilities
and chromosome-related issues,
such as Down syndrome.
And because a large portion of the older
generation would now be dead,
there would be few
people still alive
who knew how to care for newborns.
All of our knowledge
about taking care of children would
mostly be theoretical.
Hey, maybe after 50 years of not
having to deal with babies,
we wouldn’t want to start
procreating at all.
We could decide that humanity
has lived long enough on this planet.
And you could be the last human on Earth.
But wait,
that sounds like a story
for another WHAT IF.