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Re: Yuri receives hypocrite of the week award (was Re: Ecological Economics and Entropy)
In <57odot$pjd@agate.berkeley.edu> atanu@are.Berkeley.EDU (Atanu Dey)
writes:
> I am not willing to wait for that day when
> rising economic standards will bring about a drop in fertility rates
> because at the rate at which the third world is going, kingdom come
> will be sooner than the day when the rising living standards are able
> to restrict the population.
That depends on your date for Kingdom Come.
It seems to be next Friday - enjoy your weekend. :-)
Birthrates in the Third World
are dropping precipitously.
This is a Bad Thing, but has a good cause:
rising prosperity.
ZPG fiends can be satisfied: global ZPG is coming
very soon. They have won - for now - not through their
own efforts, but they have. NPG looms ahead...
Insufficient population growth is quickly
becoming a problem; nations are changing
their policies already towards encouraging
birth; but this can hardly be sufficient.
The root causes remain, and they are all *good*
and should not be reduced: affluence, women's
rights, reduced infant mortality, diversity of
lifestyle and career choices.
What *should* be done to enable population
growth again? This is a life-and-death issue
for the species, let alone economy.
IMO, research in *in vitro* fertilization and *gestation*:
all the burden must not fall on women;
let technology do *its* job.
Also research in robotics, in
child-caring and educational
technology, that can help fewer adults
to bring up more children.
Then (somewhere in the middle of the next century)
we can combine global affluence and
exciting careers for women
with a high population growth.
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