From the New Scientist:
China is edging closer to allowing all citizens to have two children instead of one. Is it too little, too late? Fears of a population explosion were rife in the second half of the 20th century. In the 1960s and 1970s, the global population was growing at an annual rate of 2 per cent, enough to double the number of people on the planet every 30 years or so. It was widely believed that this "population bomb", a product of drastically reduced mortality rates and the absence of a corresponding decline in the birth rate, would eventually lead to an overcrowded planet, with resources outstripped and humanity doomed. China's population had become the largest in the world and among the fastest growing. Its growth rate averaged above 2.5 per cent in the 1960s. The 1970s saw a social shift to later marriage, longer birth intervals and fewer births. Within one decade, the population growth rate had more than halved, from 2.58 per cent in 1970 to 1.16 per cent in 1979.

For the full story, please visit http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129615.200-what-will-happen-if-c....