
62 Ecological Sustainability
population, up from 10.3% in 2000. In the same period, the percentage of
persons under 14 declined from 23% to 17%. Among newborns, there are
now only 100 girls for every 118 boys. Male child preference, coupled with
the one-child policy and the availability of prenatal gender determination by
ultrasound, encourages sex-selective abortions (Economist 2011d).
What has happened to the Chinese population age distribution is the phe-
nomenon of global aging. It is the consequence of countries reducing their
TFRs. Global aging is a shift in the world population’s age histogram toward
the high-age end. Specically, ...