About Me
- Aunty Belle
- Aunty Belle is taken from Antebellum, a time of civility and respect fer the foundations of Western Civilization. Y'all can find me rockin' on the porches most days. Be neighborly and come sit a spell. Bring yore dawgs. Mah iced tea is the best, evah.(About yore third visit mah Cracker-speak will become intelligible. I'se sorry iffin' new folks find it odd) We's lighthearted on the Front porch http://abporkrinds.blogspot.com/ so iffin' ya want some high octane debate, jes c'mon around to the Back Porch.http://auntybelles.blogspot.com/
7 comments:
Good evening Aunty Belle,
Interesting that his chart stops at 2007, it must be worse now.
This is where sustainability becomes a major issue. People keep getting healthier and living longer with a finite amount of resources. If something's not done to curb population growth, there will likely be a downward trend for all. And if we as a nation keep sending our manufacturing base to other countries and keep enabling the net losers of our society. We will be at the front of that downward trend.
well now---
this heah is a big ole topic.
Karl, I'se wif' ya on some of what ya says, 'specially the the shippin' manufacturing out of the country--utter folly!!
An' "enabling the net losers" is double folly.
However, I thought the chart wuz hopeful--that is, that despite our woes (and there are many) the world is better off that when one had only a 40 yr life expectancy. We have solved many of our worst worries: disease and famine.
oh yes, folks still starve in some spots of the world--but that is on account of political strategy, not insufficient food to go around.
I'se persuaded thar's no worry of population growth. Shockingly, I'se in the camp that thinks problem is loss of population. Even the cursed United nations has finally admitted that we are facing a rather dire population implosion in jes' a few years.
Few media outlets will write it, but all of Euro-zone is is dying rapidly. Replacement is 2.1 chillens per woman of childbearin' age. Italy is at 1.2,
( http://www.fumento.com/fumento/italy.html )
Spain at 1.6, an' the problem is so urgent that Italy pays a woman to have a second baby, and some Italian mayors offer additional bribes if a woman in the village will have another wee one. Why?
the implosion is geometric--that is, iffin' in this generation the birth rates fall well below replacement, then in the next generation there are not enough women to bear the future of the town/city/nation and the rate drops by under 1.0. ( UN estimates are that Europe will lose 100 MILLION people by 2050)
Population loss is a massive socio economic and geopolitical nightmare. (more below)
First there woan be enough bodies to run the factories, teach skool or pilot the trains. The economy shrinks. No one to farm the land, no one to invent the next widget, no one to compose the nest symphony. No one to put the natural resources to efficient use.
Looky, ever wonder how Cologne Germany became location of second largest mosque in the world by
1985? (now a new massive mosque is going up thar)
IN jes' 15 years from '61-77
825,383 Turkish "Guest workers" came to Germany at the behest of the German gov--because Germans themselves were having so few chillen that they din't have enough people to work in the BMW factories. Now mah point ain't about Muslims--it is about how a nation that does not grow sufficient PEOPLE as a resource have to bring in other workers from more populated areas to keep the economy goin'. But soon enough the new comers out breed yore own culture. To fail to reproduce is national suicide, a loss of culture--The extinction of whole groups of people forever. Currently 44% of the world's nations are at sub-replacement rates.
Secondly, lost population invites invasion. This is the war-gaming that consumes Russia now. The vast Russian landmass is home to just 140 million souls. Russia has been killin' off her people for nearly a century. Now ain't hardly enough ladies of child-bearin' age to have the next generation so Russia will have still few people to maintain the nation come 2030. Worse, Russia has worst life expectancy in "developed" nations, the worst child health (fewer make it to adulthood) and the highest rate of new AIDS cases. In short, Russian is doom-ville. Reckon that causes a bit of cold sweat around the table of Putin's inner sanctum?
Shore it do--China and India on the russian flanks wif' mor'n a billion each--the Russians cain't raise a decent army, but China can. What resort is thar' fer a nation that cain't field an army? I worry they's got jes' one viable idea: threaten the world wif' the red button.
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well, big topic, but mostly it seems to ole Auntybelle that it is misuse of resources not over population that is our shame.
Some links:
http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/popdecline/Testa.pdf
http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=news.item&news_id=56906
http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/wpp2006/wpp2006.htm
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-03/aaft-eph032103.php
We's more than stupid on the sending OUR jobs elsewhere. The federal government fronted $58 million to Evergreen Solar to open a factory in Massachussetts to build silicon sheets and cells and for the assembly of solar panels. One year later? Well the execs got bonuses and the assembly of the solar panels was moved to China where labor costs are less.
What did we taxpayers get for our investment? Pink slips.
I agree with Karl, if we continue to enable the net losers of our society we is really stupid. First year I lived up here a neighbor told me to not be putting out bird feeders and filling them up. Her reason? A bird knows when to migrate when the food supply gets thinned out. If you feed them, they " forget" how to be birds, fail to migrate and become dependent on feeders thru the winter or perish in the cold.
Same thing with the losers. If ya provide food, shelter, clothing, medicine and education in exchange for nothing but the reproduction of more losers ... what have you gained? More importantly, what has been lost?
I read somewhere, (sorry don't remember where) that the educated people of the world are not reproducing while the uneducated are reproducing like rabbits. Not a good scenario for any of us.
Good evening Auntie Belle,
I apologize for not getting back to this sooner, I've been underway since making the comment and have not had access to reply.
Misuse of resources is right! It is true, most are better off. And with only a few exceptions, disease and famine are a thing of the past. Feeding an overpopulated planet just to keep current economic models rising is not the answer. We are basing economic strength on an unsustainable use of natural resources. The dead zones, we are creating from agricultural runoff used to make all the extra food is going to cause the collapse of ecosystems that may have worldwide implications. Depleting aquifers and rivers to feed crops to be sent all over the world, much of the food sent to countries where the level of militancy against us is constantly increasing is foolhardy.
Any food we send to a foreign country as aid, should come with a string attached. The women of that nation have access to and training in birth control. So that they, like so many women in the western world can pick and choose when to have children. This could have the effect of not only sustainability, but better educated populations. Decreasing the likelihood of wars and invasions.
We need to change the way we think about growth, the way we think about the health of our economy. I would also say that, making the next widget is overrated. I believe that one of the reasons that Gen-zero, is what they are. It comes from playing with too many widgets and not knowing how to really work.
Regarding invasion, this is where I firmly believe in technology over numbers. The reason I believe we must stop empowering populations of net losers and teaching people to become net gainers.
Your thoughts?
By the way, did you see this Pew study: http://www.wtop.com/index.php?sid=1950802&nid=770
Karl,
you noted:
"The dead zones, we are creating from agricultural runoff used to make all the extra food is going to cause the collapse of ecosystems that may have worldwide implications. Depleting aquifers and rivers to feed crops to be sent all over the world, much of the food sent to countries where the level of militancy against us is constantly increasing is foolhardy.'
AMEN TO THAT!
Sweet man-chile' Aunty has to wait until I git back on this side of pond to read the pew link--but I REALLY appreciate this in depth exchange.
An' now--I is packed an am off early tomorry.
Ciao!
Karl, ya noted:
"The dead zones, we are creating from agricultural runoff used to make all the extra food is going to cause the collapse of ecosystems that may have worldwide implications. Depleting aquifers and rivers to feed crops to be sent all over the world, much of the food sent to countries where the level of militancy against us is constantly increasing is foolhardy."
AMEN to that!
is almost packed now--lots of loose ends...off tomorry early, so Pew link will be duly examined on return--but I REALLY likes the in depth exchange.
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