Showing posts with label fertility. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fertility. Show all posts

Friday, March 6, 2009

Time to wake up to the realities of our era...

The collapse of globalization . . . is absolutely possible.  It happened in the 20th century in the wake of World War I and the Great Depression, and could happen again.  Nationalism is rising and our political systems are inward looking, the more so in times of crisis.”

—Jeffrey Sachs, American economist
(as quoted in Wednesday’s Washington Post)


“The United States has higher fertility rates among teenage girls compared with other developed countries of the world.  For example, girls ages 15 to 19 have fertility rates more than five times higher than their counterparts in developed countries such as France, Italy, Japan, Slovenia, and Switzerland.

Nonetheless, the fertility rate of girls ages 15 to 19 declined consecutively over the period from 1991 to 2005.  During this time, the fertility rate of the age group dropped by one-third, from 61.8 births per 1,000 girls ages 15 to 19 in 1991 to 40.5 in 2005.  However, the latest data for 2006 may point to a reversal of this trend, with the fertility rate inching upward to 41.9.

This trend is of great concern because adolescent pregnancy has been associated with unemployment, poverty, repeated pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, infant mortality, high risk pregnancy, and lower educational achievement.  Furthermore, teenage pregnancy is a primary indicator of adult poverty among women.

—“Rising U.S. Teen Fertility,” Rogelio Saenz & Eugenia Conde, Population Reference Bureau, February 2009


My fellow armchair-economics survivalists:

It’s time to revive old, long-neglected campaigns for things like curbed (e.g. replacement-level) fertility and stable, sustainable population growth.

Otherwise Malthus’ ghost will be visiting us many times in this millenium.

A global glut of cheap labor, cheap goods and services, and cheap credit helped precipitate this collapse. We have devalued work and life by indulging in cultural and political movements that push rapid population growth and depressed wages and now we sit here amidst the ruins generated by those destructive lies and distortions.

Our economic systems are relatively efficient as far as productivity goes; technology, division of labor, economies of scale, and other factors have devalued low-skill/no-skill labor and helped to create a swollen global underclass.

It’s time to challenge the powerful institutions and assumptions that shoved us into this hole.

The pro-fertility camp is going to bring further ruin and suffering upon everybody if they are allowed to continue to irresponsibly advocate for unchecked exponential population growth that ultimately cheapens life.

We have witnessed Peak Oil.  Shall we now usher in a new era of Peak Population and Population Stabilization?  It is time that we refuse to be silenced on these issues.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Octogenarian on Octuplets Controversy: It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.

Quote: “With our economy the way it is, with California going to hell in a basket, I should be excited?!  Doesn’t make sense to me.”

Me neither, lady.

Fact: This Whittier woman, the 87-year-old next door neighbor of the “miracle” octuplets mother would have been about eight years old when the Great Depression hit about eight decades ago.  Many of us remember being eight years old fairly vividly.  I sure do.

See the short segment on the BBC World News YouTube channel (duration = 1:58) for an example of how this story is being covered abroad.

Yes, this controversy has been festering for a while now, but this lady’s reaction is my favorite aspect of the story so far; she’s such a breath of fresh California air compared to, say, all the back-peddling fertility specialist experts.


Here is some not-so-fresh air.  The image at right depicts carbon monoxide (not CO2) emissions over South America in September 2004 as recorded from NASA’s National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Terra Satellite.  See NASA’s excellent Visible Earth portal for more stunning images.

A question: Do crisis refugees have higher fertility rates, on average?  Consider the case of the Indian Ocean rim baby boom/boomlet soon after the December 2004 earthquake/tsunami.

This paper might offer some insights: “Mortality and Fertility Interactions” [PDF].  This was published by the Population Research Center, National Opinion Research Center (NORC), & The University of Chicago around 2003.



Now, as far as the octuplets lifestyle saga goes, I wonder if the bread-winning Iraqi grandfather who brags about his wealth plans to support his family with U.S. contract money for Iraq, courtesy of Bush and his neocon crony club of amateur nation builders.  (Sorry for that dig, Dubya apologist holdouts.  We know your disgraced figurehead has left for the warm climes of Crawford, but his legacy is to be found everywhere nowadays in These United States.)