Homestead mailing list

[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

> >He points out rightly that the world's population is a problem.  The
> >current level of 6.5 billion is totally unsustainable.  Some projections
> >have us at closer to 9 billion in 50 years.

A single, quick Googling shows that Europe and Russia populations are 
declining. Decline in fertility, costs of living, costs of higher 
education and many more reasons resist families beyond replacement 
size. The big bear is Asia. China and India are both aware of the issue.

This was written four years ago:


New global forecast: population decline in sight

"Two years ago, as the world's population surpassed the high mark of 
6 billion, scientists were sounding alarm bells over unchecked 
population growth, especially in the developing world.

"But now there is a growing consensus among demographers over a new 
forecast: that women in nations with 80 percent of the world's 
population will begin to limit their families to two children or fewer.

"Before the century ends, the number of humans likely will start to 
shrink, reckons James Chamie, director of the United Nation's 
population division. That will be a "momentous" reversal in direction.

"A combination of international family-planning programs, growing 
prosperity, and better education of women is widely credited with 
reducing fertility rates worldwide."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0311/p07s02-wogi.html

Choose your source. Some sources cry danger at rising populations, 
other cry danger at falling populations. Economists and business 
people tend to want continued growth.

This is an old and occasionally hysterical subject. I read Paul 
Ehrlich's book The Population Bomb, in about 1959 and wrote and gave 
a speech on the subject. It was a topic du jour of the time. Ehrlich 
predicted that the world as we knew it would cease to exist by the 
end of the century. Looks pretty good to me.

This issue is a non-starter. As populations grow, conditions are 
created that cause population decline. It will ever be so.

Sigh. We all want, need to be important. If writing is something we 
perceive as leading to that condition, then we write. The incredible 
growth of blogging is the latest proof of the condition. So there 
will be an increasingly expanding explosion of opinions, with "proof" 
cherry-picked off the Net, of every conceivable bad thing that might, 
just might happen.

Relax and focus on homesteading skills and practices. You control 
your focus. Focus on good stuff. Enjoy life. Smell the roses. Let the 
doomspouters spout to others.