China's Fertility Rate Drops To Record Low (reuters.com) 188
According to the National Business Daily, China's fertility rate in 2022 dropped to a record low of 1.09 from 1.15 in 2021. Reuters reports: The state-backed Daily said the figure from China's Population and Development Research Center put it as having the lowest fertility level among countries with a population of more than 100 million. China's fertility rate is already one of the world's lowest alongside South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. China has said it will focus on education, science and technology to improve population quality and strive to maintain a "moderate fertility" level to support economic growth in future.
Hong Kong's Family Planning Association said in a separate release on Tuesday that the number of childless women in the special Chinese administrative region more than doubled from five years ago to 43.2% last year. The percentage of couples with one or two children also tumbled while the average number of children per woman dropped from 1.3 in 2017 to a record low of 0.9 last year, according to its survey.
Hong Kong's Family Planning Association said in a separate release on Tuesday that the number of childless women in the special Chinese administrative region more than doubled from five years ago to 43.2% last year. The percentage of couples with one or two children also tumbled while the average number of children per woman dropped from 1.3 in 2017 to a record low of 0.9 last year, according to its survey.
They have made their choice (Score:2)
Re:They have made their choice (Score:5, Interesting)
It's worse than that.
China tried to curb its population explosion by imposing a one-child-per-family law. The last 2 generations grew up in a world where you could only have one child. Having another one actually meant severe drawbacks for your whole family.
That created two very undesirable effects.
First, Chinese kids were dubbed "little princes" for good reason. They were spoiled rotten. If you think kids act entitled here, you ain't seen nothing yet. Sure, their "spoiled rotten" was originally on a much lower level than what we'd consider it, but that changed with the second generation where wealth finally arrived for China's middle class. These kids are, concerning their attitude towards satisfaction of their wants and needs, absolutely on par with ours.
Actually... come to think of it, more on par with our boomers. "Me first and gimmegimme" is pretty much the prevailing attitude.
The other effect was that you now have a few generations that know nothing but a one-kid family situation. That's the norm now. That's what two generations grew up with. It's become a cultural standard. The 3-4 kids that were normal before is from a time only a few old ones even remember. Today's parents and even grandparents have grown up in a one-kid family, and they learned, from their grandparents/parents that this is way, way easier to handle than trying to provide for 3-4 kids.
You think you can turn that around?
If you find out how, mind telling us? Because the "West" has a problem not unlike that one. We're shrinking. Fast. Boomers retire and the GenZ that replaces them is VASTLY lower in numbers.
Re: They have made their choice (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: They have made their choice (Score:5, Insightful)
No size fits all, that's a given. You'll find that our GenZ isn't all spoiled brats who think that they should get a C-Level position right out of college or be paid millions for making Tiktok videos as influenzas. Even though yes, of course, such people exist.
What matters is a general population attitude shift. Instead of 10% such people in a population, you now have 30%. And in China, you have almost 100% young people who grew up in a one-child family. It's likely that these people will not want to have a very large family themselves. Maybe they will consider having 2 kids instead of one, but the 5+ kids families they had are over.
We have seen a very similar shift over here. My grandmother were 9 siblings. And that was far from outrageously many back then. Sure, it was more than average, but far from something that would land you in the local papers. It would have been considered a lot already in WW2, when a mother with that many kids would already have qualified for the highest level of the Mutterkreuz [wikipedia.org].
Today, even having 4 kids is already considered a LOT.
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Reinforce this with an Arab Oil Embargo from the early 1970's (we're running out of oil!). People start to think that a smaller family, or no family, is necessary.
Kids are expensive and the cost of
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If you think you'll ever inherit a dime from your boomer parents, think again. They'll blow it all for the chance of wasting another day on this planet.
Your claim doesnt hold up to the reality I can easily observe around me. I inherited a fairly tidy sum of money when my father died and stand to again when my mom eventually does (hopefully far in the future). I also have friends who have seen their entire standard of living go up a level due to the passing of a parent or parents.
The fact is that unlike newer generations boomers were wealthier than generations prior and thus those of us who were raised by them are far more likely to benefit financially from
Re: They have made their choice (Score:5, Interesting)
There is certainly no benefit to the men in marriage and having kids? Why?
If you don't want kids, don't have them. But for me, my kids are the best thing that's happened in my life.
The anti-male problems with marriage can be mitigated with a proper prenup.
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But for me, my kids are the best thing that's happened in my life.
If only the reverse could also be true.
#friendlybanter
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And as long as you keep them the best thing in your life, I have no problem with it.
Problematic are the parents that try to make their kids something in someone else's life.
Cognitive disonnance (Score:5, Funny)
Our society insists that children, teenagers and even students are human. This hypothesis fails to fit the facts, but we are still required to believe it.
Bring back punishments for adultery (Score:3)
Only downside: Just as folks can lie about their age, whether they are on birth control to ruin lives or whether they even consented int the first place, the risk of someone ly
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First, take divorce off the table. Second, make it so if anyone sleeps with someone who is married when they are not married to them, that there is severe legal consequences for both parties.
The Philippines does exactly this. Divorce is illegal (except for Muslims). Adultery is illegal, with severe legal consequences.
Except I live in the Philippines, and it isn't the utopian moral paradise that you imagine.
Since you can't get out of marriage, people are reluctant to get in. So illegitimate births are sky-high. But without marriage to hold them together, couples split up, leaving single mothers to raise the kids.
Adultery is illegal, but still extremely common since so many people are stuck in un
Re: They have made their choice (Score:2)
Did you forget about memetics?
Re: They have made their choice (Score:4, Insightful)
Millennials will become the most hated generation ever
The Boomers sure set the bar pretty high.
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The young Chinese people I met were actually modest well behaved nice people.
I lived in China for several years and met plenty of nice people there. But also many spoiled princes and princesses.
It's worse in the 2nd generation of the one-child policy when you've got six adults (two parents and four grandparents) all trying to stuff food into one kid.
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I disagree. These effects are very likely the result of the situation becoming better. This has lead to decreased fertility everywhere. And no, it is not a "problem" (not in China, not in the West), it may be the one thing that makes continued existence of the human race possible. Obviously, shortsighted politics always causes friction when these situations are not planned for.
Re:They have made their choice (Score:5, Insightful)
The "problem" here is not one of resources. Far from it, a lower population might just save us from extinction.
The problem is that we try to continue our economic model with fewer people. And that's not possible. You can't have perpetual growth with a shrinking population. I remember back in school we had an "economy expert" in who told us of the great advantages of LLCs and how the average LLC has an annual growth of about 15%. My question whether it actually requires to have a growth of 15% or else it perishes, and thus we only have LLCs that grow by 15% p.A., any who didn't was already gone. was met with a very cold stare and a change of topic.
Every year, about 20% more people retire than join the workforce. This is a global (ok, a Western) phenomenon and not isolated to a single country. You can take the age pyramid of your country and compare yourself. This also will not change for at least another 15 years, when the workforce will finally level out, albeit at a much lower level. Barring immigration, we will lose almost 20% of our workforce within the next 15 years. That is, to put it mildly, a LOT. And people are not fungible. You can't just rejoice and say that your 20% unemployment rate will be a thing of the past. Because it's mostly unskilled people who are unemployed, but it's all sorts of people who retire. The unemployment rate will barely change.
We're not running in a resource problem, we're running into a severe economic problem. The sensible thing would be to change our economic model. But what we'll actually do is simply whip the remaining workers harder.
Re:They have made their choice (Score:5, Insightful)
The sensible thing would be to change our economic model.
I really can't think of anything better than a UBI.
A lot of basic needs can be met by automation, and we'll only need a much smaller workforce to keep up that level of automation running smoothly.
We could free up a lot of people to spend that time they would have used on dead-end menial automatable jobs to actually get educated/trained in higher level skills, whether it be for a job, or for their own enjoyment, which they could turn into a job if they want, but without having to justify it on profit margins. Others could use that time to raise and feed their kids property. Retirees can focus on building community relationships. We could have more people working in aged care, and it won't be as horrible as it is now because it won't be understaffed.
There just isn't a really good reason to force everyone to play, and get judged by, the same socioeconomic ladder climbing gauntlet.
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Again, humans are not fungible. You simply CANNOT qualify some people. Even aside of their willingness to learn, some just simply and plainly are unable to.
But I think that's ok, I think a key "job" for the future will actually be to simply be available as company for people who are lonely. A lot of people will age in the future without anyone around, and they may well feel lonely if they have nobody to talk to. Now, I'm happy if nobody bothers me, but I noticed that there are people who enjoy the company o
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While I want to agree, I do know that there are literally people out there who do not want to do anything. They just want to spend their life sitting on the couch rotting their brain with TV. And while I generally don't understand why, I know that yes, such people do exist. They don't want anything else.
Personally, if that's what makes them happy, well, at least they have something that makes them happy, but please realize that there are people who have no desire whatsoever to do anything that anyone could
Re:They have made their choice (Score:4, Insightful)
Still, I think the problem of people who don't want to do anything is far overblown. Most of the exaggeration is just by rich people complaining that poor people don't want to work. I would say having a UBI would help us figure out how many of those people are actually depressed and just needed to find a job that they would do if it weren't for the fact that it wouldn't pay their bills. Then the rest, you'd probably have to do some social engineering and plain old promotion.
As for those jobs that aren't anyone's hobby, they're most likely menial jobs that can and should be automated away. Maybe my imagination's limited, but any non-menial job will be exciting and interesting to someone out there. The jobs that no one really wants to do are janitorial jobs and service jobs.
I think if people can try and explore jobs without fear of losing their food and shelter, you might actually find there are more people who would actually like the "undesirable jobs". There would be a sense of community and camaraderie that would help them feel they were doing something meaningful, without the stigma of being financially undesirable. I can imagine there would be people who take pride in a janitorial job, especially if there were a community around it.
eg, this guy prefers being a cleaner over being finance whatsit: https://www.news.com.au/financ... [news.com.au]
Re: They have made their choice (Score:2)
Can I just say I was with you until the last paragraph, with the link to the guy who chose to work for the animal-murdering McDonald's? Isn't a finance job less harmful because you are just moving numbers on screens around?
Re:They have made their choice (Score:5, Insightful)
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Teie taotlus tasuta pentestiks on rahuldatud, tulemused avaldatakse siin teie häbiks ja kõigi teiste meelelahutuseks.
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Others could actually have time to raise their kids, which is also going to reduce youth crime that would have ballooned into adult crime and high recidivism rates.
Like I said, you can't judge on the criteria of economic utilitarianism and socioeconomic ladder climbing.
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We are coming to a crossroads where we either enact a UBI, or we just peel the veneer of civilization off, go back to debtor's prisons, and "camps" where people mysteriously enter, but never leave... except the nearby pawn and "we buy gold" shops always have a large selection of gold teeth in stock.
Why do we always need to have everyone fighting with each other? There was a time where people worked on their own lives and did their own things, as opposed to trying to always one-up people in the status symbo
Re: They have made their choice (Score:2)
What if you can fund a strong basic income without taxes, since Treasury can sell new bonds faster than the old need redeeming?
Housing is unaffordable (Score:3)
Although the figures point to growing prosperity, this masks the fact that for young adults things are a lot worse than for their parents, not least because of the same problem as the west - housing is far too expensive for those in their 20s to afford. So they don't nest, and don't produce sprogs.
Re:Housing is unaffordable (Score:5, Insightful)
That has way more (unwanted) side effects than just breeding.
It's currently near impossible for a new adult to get a mortgage. Basel III basically means you have to have a considerable fraction of what you'd need to loan as collateral, and they don't have it. And by the time they would finally be able to save it up, the price of the real estate goes up, and so does the required mortgage and it's out of reach again. By the time they reach 25, they figure out that this is something they will never have.
That in turn, though, also means that they don't have a mortgage hanging over their head. You can't blackmail them into keeping their job, no matter what. They don't have a monthly payment to make or their precious house is gone. They don't even care too much about losing their apartment they rent because they can crash on the couch of a friend 'til they find something new. That's no problem, that friend stayed on their couch the last 3 months while he was out of a job. They also don't really own a lot, so moving out means packing your crap in a box and putting it in a corner at your friend's.
Now add that the current generation of new employees is also pretty highly skilled, often knows foreign languages, maybe spent a semester abroad, has experienced foreign cultures and can deal with them fairly well and worst of all, they know it. And as stated above, they are not outright required to find a job now. They can say "no" when offered something they don't like. Worse, they can say "up yours" when they get asked to do something they don't want to do and stay on the couch for another month or two.
Now add that we're actually losing rather than gaining workforce (quite frankly, I've seen "help wanted" posters in every single store and restaurant across town. We're not even talking about high-skill labor, ANY labor is in short supply) and you might have an idea what problem we're running into.
Great comment (Score:2)
Thank you; fascinating. How does that fit with the high reported rate of youth unemployment - so much that the government has stopped publishing data. Or are you in a top ranking city where the unemployed have no prospect of sticking around.
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Being registered as unemployed does not necessarily mean you can't find a job. It may well mean, that you prefer to sleep on a friend's couch for now and use the meek benefits to pay for your food&phone, exactly as suggested by Opportunist.
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Being unemployed is no longer a looming threat for our 20-30 year olds. They crash on a friend's couch and if push comes to shove, take a gig job for a month to earn a few bucks.
We "old" ones had our debts hanging over our heads and had to put the nose to the grind stone, or else we lose our car, our house, our pension plan. They literally got none of that, and nothing to lose, what do you want to threaten them with?
Re: Great comment (Score:2)
How about prison for their speech?
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Yes, but shit flows downstream.
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I disagree. We are running into a resource problem. Alternatively, we are running into an extinction-level environmental problem. The economic problem is real, but minor in comparison. It still needs to be fixed.
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We cannot solve our economic problem with this economy, because solving it would require abstaining from the pipe dreams of eternal growth. That would make the economy as we have it today collapse, and it will fight that tooth and nail, if need be at the expense of blowing up the planet.
First fix the economic model. Then we can fix the ecology.
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I would ordinarily agree, but time is running out fast. Incidentally, we cannot fix the ecology anymore at this point. We need to prepare to survive the catastrophe.
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Economists will tell you that we should be investing in technology and processes that make workers more efficient. Too bad that people aren’t listening much to the economists nowadays.
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That has never stopped anyone from trying to squeeze more out of their workers. Back when slaves were all the craze, you at least had an incentive to keep them alive another day because you spent a fortune on them. With the rent model we employ now, your incentive to keep them in working condition is zero. If they don't perform anymore, if they get damaged or even destroyed, no worry, it wasn't yours anyway, just rent another one.
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Even in the US, which is relatively young compared to a lot of the west, companies
Perpetual Growth w/o Population Growth (Score:2)
The problem is that we try to continue our economic model with fewer people. And that's not possible. You can't have perpetual growth with a shrinking population.
Yes, you can by developing technology that makes us much more efficient at the jobs we do. This is why, for example, a far smaller fraction of people work in agriculture now than before the industrial revolution and yet provide far more food. It's certainly not as fast nor as simple as just increasing numbers but that does not make it impossible. It is why investing in science and technology is becoming more and more important as populations decline in the West as well as the East.
Re:They have made their choice (Score:5, Interesting)
Another effect of China's policies was parents aborting their females because they wanted sons.
They also walked into another trap. They sent everybody they could to college, yet they insisted on a state controlled economy. So when the had all these college grads, they had no place for them to work. Taking the lid off the economy would create centers of power other than the CCP.
Then the worst happened, they put Xi Jinping at the top of the CCP and the country. He values measuring his "stature" against Mao to the detriment of anything else. He's a paranoid authoritarian. So he sees a plot behind every Chinese and his reaction is to lock down that society as tight as he can. If that place blows up, it will be a spectacular event.
As for the little princes effect, I see no evidence.
Re:They have made their choice (Score:5, Interesting)
>because they wanted sons.
I find it ironic that they aborted their girls since boys were more highly valued in their culture. Did they not consider that 20+ years later when their sons start looking for wives, that the women would be scarcer and therefore MORE valuable?
Well that is what would happen normally. Today the typical Chinese male has to worry about "The Curse of 35" [osu.edu]. How can a young man even think about starting a family when he has to consider that he will be laid off when he turns 35?
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In parts of Europe, the birthrate is getting pretty low as well. Not quite as low as China or Russia, but still demographic-implosion levels.
The US birthrate is actually fairly close to replacement. Not quite, but close. GenZ is actually pretty big. And we make up the difference by being at least a little bit tolerant to immigration. The US will continue to grow steadily, other parts of the west will s
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So that being said, the US is actually getting older mostly due to living longer, but it's demographics are quite good. This is mostly due to immigration [pewresearch.org], as despite all the racial conversation going on in this country, the simple reality is it's far more acceptable for peo
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you're referring to Gen Z and Boomers (which marks you as a millennial btw)
Everyone forgets about Gen-X... we are still here, between the boomers and the millennials.
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You think you can turn that around?
You can turn everything around. In fact your discussion showed a fundamental change in Chinese attitude based on a single policy.
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Attitude? It was pretty much "have one kid or else", that's no attitude any more than handing over your money at gunpoint is one.
What is your plan, mandating having 3+ kids now? Good luck. The former Soviet republics tried something... kinda ... like that. In the GDR, a newlywed pair got a interest-free loan when they started their newlywed life that they could either pay back over a certain amount of time, or they could have kids. If you had 3, your debt was forgiven.
"Abkindern", it was called. Hard to tra
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Forgot to say: It didn't work. People actually would rather have 1-2 kids and pay back the rest rather than really suffer having 3 kids in a standard 500 sqft apartment.
Smart play. Perpetual growth is toxic (Score:2, Insightful)
Perpetual growth is toxic. Humans are a burden on a severely overstrained tiny planet. More humans are a blessing to no one, just more beasts needing resources.
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VHEMT is the answer [vhemt.org].
(just noticed when previewing it, this looks like the average spam here... I swear it's on topic :)).
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Errr...so are you volunteering to take yourself out of the gene pool? Get back to us on how you are doing with that.
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Pretty well. No kids means no unnecessary expenses, a lot of spare time, no responsibility beyond my own, very few surprises in my life and generally a lot less stress.
I guess it must be some sort of human thing that some people want kids. As far as I can see, there is not really any relevant advantage to having them.
Re:Smart play. Perpetual growth is toxic (Score:4, Interesting)
You use this free time to have posted to Slashdot literally 43 times by 11:17 am on a Saturday morning!
Something is wrong with your brain if you'd rather spend all your time posting to a dying bulletin board rather than, say, having a picnic and going to the library with your family, then going to play golf with one of your sons.
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It's not like we force anyone to get their tubes tied, ya know...
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China made no such choice to pursue *wealth* instead of *population*. Such a choice wouldn't even make sense. A contracting population makes continued economic growth harder, so the *correct* choice to promote weatlh generation is modest propulation growth.
Like many advanced economies, China has blundered into a low fertility rate scenario as an unintended consequence of policies meant to do other things like create powerful industrial companies or to prop up real estate market values -- although in China'
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People would generally go without food, clothing, or shelter without money.
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They didn't before we invented it.
Seems to me that any society that that removes the potential for a quality hunter-gatherer lifestyle without offering a competitive alternative in terms of effort, reward, and freedom is inherently usury.
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Even Sumerians had money.
In 2023, most people can't reasonably expect to get everything they need through direct barter. Workers are too specialized.
Re: They have made their choice (Score:2)
Ever heard of riba?
Re: They have made their choice (Score:2)
Rationally, why would they breed, then?
Good (Score:5, Interesting)
Preferable that it occur via smaller families than via war, genocide or mass starvation.
The economic delusionists and their belief that exponential growth can continue without end in a closed system [the spaceship called Earth] are not too far from slamming into a brick wall of resource constraint.
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Not an Evangelical, I see. We be in the End-O-Times where Jesus will come back:
The scene: the clouds are roiling, the trumpets blaring, Jesus floats majestically to Earth.
Jesus: How y'all doing? Jesus Christ here.
He proceeds to meet and greet. After awhile, he looks at his iWatch:
Jesus: Well, time's a wasting, I'm a busy guy.
The clouds begin roiling again, the trumpets blare again, Jesus floats majestically from Earth.
That's it. That is the Second Coming. I hope you are buying tickets.
Re:Good (Score:5, Informative)
Fewer.
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Any science on how you came up with that number? What are the assumptions? That we can't have solar power or synthetic food? If there are only two people on Earth they'll still fight over who owns Mount Everest.
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Are you willing to depopulate your country by 90%, or were you expecting others to do it?
Because we are already on track for 10 billion even if everyone sticks to having 2.1 children (replacement rate, accounting for premature deaths) as people are living longer, so there will be more generations alive at once.
The good news is that we are levelling off. Places like Bangladesh and India, where the fertility rate used to be around 9, are now at or below replacement. India's official rate is 2.05, i.e. their p
Re: Good (Score:2)
Africa (Score:4, Interesting)
Although global warming & climate change are going to have strong but somewhat unpredictable effects of where people can & want to migrate to.
At the moment, western countries appear to be swinging wildly in the opposite, hostile, right-wing, nationalist, xenophobic, anti-immigration direction.
Isn't life getting interesting?
May you live in interesting times... (Score:3)
One of Terry Pratchett's books has a great deal of fun with that quote, as in: is this a blessing or a curse?
Re:Africa (Score:5, Insightful)
And how would those countries feel about losing their population? North African countries in particular are starting to suffer greatly since their brightest are leaving to work abroad, often never to return. The talk about "investing in African countries' education systems" means that the African countries will bear the burden of supporting the growth of a child into an economically valuable adult, only to never reap the benefit.
This talk of simply "harvesting" the African population is pretty much a neo-colonialistic ideal of plundering african resources, except that these will be human resources.
Disclaimer: I am someone from North Africa who's preparing to move abroad, as well. I am just witnessing a growing political wave of protecting the only wealth Africa has left, it's people.
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But how about if the population growth & education standards sufficient that there are plenty of skilled & unskilled workers to go ar
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Bit more complicated than that. Even if the kids leave their home country to go abroad to earn a wage via a Bachelor or Masters... what happens down the line when the migrated country still lack core infrastructure or just labor pools to support the same career?
Wanting to go back to build your country is noble and all, but what do you do when the host country is still too barren to support actual industries or supply chains? Or the corruption means its not possible or feasible to run a export/import refinem
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At the moment, western countries appear to be swinging wildly in the opposite, hostile, right-wing, nationalist, xenophobic, anti-immigration direction.
I'll just say what I said at the height of the anti-Melania stuff: how about you invite all the poor and violent of the Earth, and we'll invite all the Eastern European models, and we'll just see who does better in the long run, lol
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At the moment, western countries appear to be swinging wildly in the opposite, hostile, right-wing, nationalist, xenophobic, anti-immigration direction.
Please don't associate us with Trump's America. Western countries haven't changed much. hostile right-wing racists have always existed and are as they have been for a long time now in the vast minority.
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Even couples aren't having sex!! (Score:5, Interesting)
'A surprising number of young couples are not even having sex. In a survey conducted in 2020, 14.6% and 10.1% of partnered men and women born between 1995 and 2003 reported having had no sex in the past year.'
Apparently too tired or too oppressed by their society!
https://www.economist.com/brie... [economist.com]
(probably paywalled)
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One issue you don't see discussed a lot is the fact that certain chemicals that pervade our lives (mostly pesticide and plastic related) are causing hormonal issues. In the womb they cause gender confusion and men are becoming more sterile with every generation.
If we continue, eventually there won't be enough fertile men to populate society at all.
The mega-corps have mostly buried this information because God forbid if oil monopolies and food monopolies can't generate 1000% growth every year.
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One issue you don't see discussed a lot is the fact that certain chemicals that pervade our lives (mostly pesticide and plastic related) are causing hormonal issues. In the womb they cause gender confusion and men are becoming more sterile with every generation.
There's a reason we don't discuss stupid baseless bullshit. Most people are intelligent enough to have more meaningful discussions.
It's not only the environment that benefits (Score:2)
from only having one child. I cannot think of any better way to make life easier and more luxurious for the child after the parents have reached end of life.
Whatever estate remains, isn't split amongst siblings, it all goes to the one child. Minus, of course, whatever taxes or duties the state decides to take. It might not be very much but in the case of parents who, like me, have been fortunate enough to be the outright owner of a nice house, that is a massive gift to leave behind assuming that I don't bec
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The other thing that isn't split between the children is care. Now one child is burdened with looking after two parents!
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from only having one child. I cannot think of any better way to make life easier and more luxurious for the child after the parents have reached end of life.
After, perhaps. During? Perhaps not so good, as you have one child attempting to take care of multiple parents/grandparents.
The problem with assuming more affordable housing is that housing demand is not even. Housing rots from neglect and abuse in Detroit, you can't even give the homes away, even as affordability concerns rock San Francisco and NYC.
The problem is even worse in Japan, you have entire abandoned towns there.
Really, it takes a birthrate of ~2.1 to maintain a population at a steady state for
Microplastics, soil and sea (Score:2, Interesting)
Comments immediately get political, missing Chinese farmers plowing plastic into the soil because it's cheaper than collecting it:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/... [sciencedirect.com]
This plastic leaches phthalates which causes infertility:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/... [sciencedirect.com]
I won't mention the other things that these chemicals cause as this starts to encroach on those wonderful taboo subjects the anglophone woke world just loves.
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Here in the UK, treated sewage waste is routinely sprayed on to farm fields to 'enrich' it. Sewage contains all those plastics that the general public is given to flushing down the toilet. Walk through urban parks over mown grass, and you will see fragments of plastic wrappers (and whatever else chopped up by mowers - it's cheaper than picking up the litter.
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I must learn to tell them apart!
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What do you think the gong farmers [wikipedia.org] of Henry VIII's London (or Victoria's coronation London), did at the end of the day, after shovelling shit out of a cess pit into their horse-drawn cart? They took it out of town and sold it to farmers for spreading on their fields.
The last time I visited my home town, I took a wrong turn in the neighbouring town and ended up driving over the area where the sewage plant used to s
And kids worry about climate change ... (Score:2)
People don't see the forest of civilization ending threats for the trees. I find net zero an interesting intellectual diversion, but not all that important in the grand scheme of things. Demographics are the most immediate threat, but not as amenable to solutions ... not humane ones any way.
Either the singularity saves us or industrial civilization is fucked. I don't see Africans, Amish and Frum maintaining it ... maybe the Muslims can salvage some of it, but consanguinity seems to be getting worse again in
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PS. I could also see China just throwing the last vestiges of communist-feminist ideals overboard and ban anti-conception and most abortions, that might work, for them. The west would be hard pressed following that example though.
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This is a good thing (Score:2)
Endless growth is impossible
We need steady-state sustainability
This ALWAYS happens (Score:2)
A lower fertility rate is a natural response to perceived overcrowding. All "population bomb" moral panics have fizzled out because of this fact. I can remember when Japan was the poster child for 'teeming millions'. Now look at its minuscule fertility rate.
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Honk Kong is indeed fucked, though people all around the world have willingly and knowingly raised large families under worse conditions.
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and in China it's even worse!
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If ("if") this seems likely to become a problem, Putin has the option of banning abortion and the manufacture, import, sale and possession of contraceptives of any sort. Assuming that people don't stop having sex, the population will start to increase rapidly.
He might - "might" - need to gibbet an infanticide in each town centre, just to get the message home. O