Given that most agree that over population is the cause of global warming, why no discussion about over population? That is the idea behind this blog.
First, a few facts. Population growth is caused by us humans having babies. Is that clear? There are at least three factors that affect the growth of population:
(1) Number of babies each mother has.
(2) The age that the mother has her first child
(3) Survival rate of the child
There has been a lot of data published on the number of children different groups have and I think that it is clear which ethnic and religious groups and countries have the most. There is also a clear relationship that show the quality of life of those who have more children is the lowest. The data is most often shown in terms of population density. El Salvador, for example has 885 people per square mile, while the USA has about 75 or less than 10% and the quality of life reflects this difference!
One area that does not get much attention is (2), the age mothers have their first child. This is even more significant than the actual number of children that a mother has. It is like compound interest with a shorter compounding period. I feel that one of the easiest things that the human race could do to reduce the rate of population growth would be for mothers to have their first child at an older age. Here is some data to support this position:
Country Average Age
Angola 18.0
Bangladesh, Niger 18.1
Chad 18.2
Mali 18.6
Guinea, Uganda, Mozambique, Malawi 18.9
These are the worst countries in the world and you would not like to live in or visit one of these. Here is the data for countries where you may want to visit or live:
Greece 31.2
Australia 30.5
S, Korea, Japan, Italy 30.3
Switzerland, Luxembourg 30.2
Singapore, Spain, Ireland, Hong Kong 29.8
Big difference in these numbers as is there a big difference in the quality of life in these countries. Are you starting to get a feel for the root cause? How does the USA stand in all of this? The USA is about in the middle at 26.3. If you look deeper into the data of the USA, you will see that for married mothers the age is 28.8 which is not bad. When you look at those who were unmarried the age falls too just 23.1 which is far below. Looking at other data, those mothers who are college graduates were 30.3 which puts them in the same group as the "best" countries above. Those who were not college graduates were way down at 23.8.
The reason that I have dug out all this data is to try to point to a path out of the global warming problem and also as a painless way to improve the quality of life for the citizens of the USA. I think that most of us would like to leave the USA as a better place than we found it and one way to do that is to have fewer children and have them later in life. For anyone with a brain, and who honestly looks at the world we live in has to recognize that over population is killing the human race and making the quality of life for us all "worse". Look in the mirror and ask yourself . "What can I do to make this a better place for my children?" The answer is simple. Have fewer children and have them later in life while encouraging others around the world to do the same. I think that we all want people around the world to have a better quality of life and we must also know that they can not have a better quality of life by immigrating here and destroying our quality of life! We all have to have some skin in the game and you know what that means!
PS---Darwin regulated the population using the food supply and disease. Mothers who are starving can not get pregnant. When Ireland got the potato, it was not long before they were over populated. In the last 200 years, we have reduced death from childhood disease and good intentions have provided food to countries that were over populated. Like any system, are now "over shooting" with too much population and have to take the difficult steps necessary to reduce our population.
First, a few facts. Population growth is caused by us humans having babies. Is that clear? There are at least three factors that affect the growth of population:
(1) Number of babies each mother has.
(2) The age that the mother has her first child
(3) Survival rate of the child
There has been a lot of data published on the number of children different groups have and I think that it is clear which ethnic and religious groups and countries have the most. There is also a clear relationship that show the quality of life of those who have more children is the lowest. The data is most often shown in terms of population density. El Salvador, for example has 885 people per square mile, while the USA has about 75 or less than 10% and the quality of life reflects this difference!
One area that does not get much attention is (2), the age mothers have their first child. This is even more significant than the actual number of children that a mother has. It is like compound interest with a shorter compounding period. I feel that one of the easiest things that the human race could do to reduce the rate of population growth would be for mothers to have their first child at an older age. Here is some data to support this position:
Country Average Age
Angola 18.0
Bangladesh, Niger 18.1
Chad 18.2
Mali 18.6
Guinea, Uganda, Mozambique, Malawi 18.9
These are the worst countries in the world and you would not like to live in or visit one of these. Here is the data for countries where you may want to visit or live:
Greece 31.2
Australia 30.5
S, Korea, Japan, Italy 30.3
Switzerland, Luxembourg 30.2
Singapore, Spain, Ireland, Hong Kong 29.8
Big difference in these numbers as is there a big difference in the quality of life in these countries. Are you starting to get a feel for the root cause? How does the USA stand in all of this? The USA is about in the middle at 26.3. If you look deeper into the data of the USA, you will see that for married mothers the age is 28.8 which is not bad. When you look at those who were unmarried the age falls too just 23.1 which is far below. Looking at other data, those mothers who are college graduates were 30.3 which puts them in the same group as the "best" countries above. Those who were not college graduates were way down at 23.8.
The reason that I have dug out all this data is to try to point to a path out of the global warming problem and also as a painless way to improve the quality of life for the citizens of the USA. I think that most of us would like to leave the USA as a better place than we found it and one way to do that is to have fewer children and have them later in life. For anyone with a brain, and who honestly looks at the world we live in has to recognize that over population is killing the human race and making the quality of life for us all "worse". Look in the mirror and ask yourself . "What can I do to make this a better place for my children?" The answer is simple. Have fewer children and have them later in life while encouraging others around the world to do the same. I think that we all want people around the world to have a better quality of life and we must also know that they can not have a better quality of life by immigrating here and destroying our quality of life! We all have to have some skin in the game and you know what that means!
PS---Darwin regulated the population using the food supply and disease. Mothers who are starving can not get pregnant. When Ireland got the potato, it was not long before they were over populated. In the last 200 years, we have reduced death from childhood disease and good intentions have provided food to countries that were over populated. Like any system, are now "over shooting" with too much population and have to take the difficult steps necessary to reduce our population.
