Why We Should Have Lots Of Children

There are still people who think that the world is overpopulated. Prince Harry and Megan Markle are planning on only having two children to help keep the ecosystem sustainable. The Guardian said about this, “So, of all the lifestyle choices you could make, having one less child is by far the best option.”

Sadly, this is about the worst thing we could do. The Guardian, and many others are worried about our ‘carbon footprint’. For some reason, they want us to think that the developed world is responsible for majority of CO2 in our atmosphere. But if you look at the data, it is the under-developed countries that are responsible for all of the increase in CO2.

And most of the other under-developed countries are increasing their CO2 output as well. (And I don’t blame them. They need more energy to become modern, prosperous, healthy countries).

One can worry about CO2 emissions or not, but there is virtually nothing that the developed countries can do about it.

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Here is a huge problem that more and more people are realizing: under-population in developed countries is becoming a disaster.

Consider this graph of population growth:

It takes 2.1 children per woman to maintain a population. But by the end of the century, world population will begin to decline. Worse, population decline is already happening in most developed countries.

Why is this bad? Countries depend on current workers to support their Social Security and Medicare-type programs. Low fertility rates means fewer workers and more retirees.

Countries around the world are beginning to reckon with a years-long drop in new births that has skewed population demographics heavily toward older age groups.

In a more local perspective, some cities are already reckoning with the challenges of precipitous drops in new births, including “ghost cities” in China and maternity wards with too few births to justify staying open in Italy. Some South Korean universities have so few students that the government is pressuring them to merge with others, and entire towns where deaths outnumber births are being consolidated in Japan.

Japan sells more adult diapers than baby diapers.

Look about what Elon Musk says about this:

Elon Musk says population collapse 'potentially the greatest risk to the future of civilization'

Musk has previously warned population collapse is a bigger problem than most people realize.

 

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It is true that too many children are being born in the Middle East and Africa, causing many problems for them. But outside of those areas, population declines are causing a huge problem.

Here’s my request of you, my dear readers: If you are a loving, married couple, please have lots of children. That means at least 3 and preferably more. Yes, kids cost money. But out great-grandparents were poor and had 6 to 8 children, and they worked it out.

NO! I don’t want to hear any excuses….

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Tim Farage is a Professor and Graduate Advisor in the Computer Science Department at The University of Texas at Dallas. He writes about mathematics, computer science, physics, chemistry, the reconciliation between science and spirituality, Intelligent Design, and the application of Natural Law to our various systems such as education, government and economics.

Will mankind survive overpopulation, resource shortage and climate change?

I’m going to reduce the anxiety in your life. Here’s how:

• Overpopulation is not a problem
• We’re not running out of resources
• “Climate Change” may be disruptive, and it may even be better for humanity

Let’s take these one at a time.

• Overpopulation

In 2017 world population is about 7.5 billion. Here is a UN graph of the projected population until 2100:

So it seems Earth’s population will top out this century between 9 to 10 billion people. Modern countries can easily feed, provide clothing and housing, etc., to its citizens. Developing countries have a problem because their governments are corrupt and don’t allow its citizens freedom, especially free markets. As countries modernize they get richer. Notice the growth of China, for instance, because its government has been allowing free enterprise.

• Natural Resources

Reports of running out of natural resources have appeared for decades and maybe a century ago. Instead we’re finding more and more natural resources. Fracking has allowed countries to inexpensively obtain more natural gas than we thought possible. And China has many untapped resources.

Resources such as aluminum, iron, manganese, chromium, etc., never get used up - they don’t leave the Earth. With the exponential advances in technology and robotics, we’ll be able to recycle these and never run out of them.

Similarly, water never leaves the Earth. It just takes technology and energy to make it potable.

The only natural resources we’ll eventually run out of are the fossil fuels - and we shouldn’t need them for energy by the end of this century, because of renewables and nuclear power.

• “Climate Change”

Here’s a NASA graph of the current rate of climate change. This does not depend on the many non-validated climate models. It is actual satellite data:

Note the trend line of 0.16C per decade. This comes out to less than 2C per century. Now with technological advances still increasing quickly, does it seem like we can’t handle a 2C increase over 100 years?

Actually, the Earth is getting greener because we are emitting more CO2 into our atmosphere. Who knows what the optimal plant/human/animal CO2 level is?

And if you’re worried about sea-level increases, here’s another graph for you from NASA:

So this gives a rate of 3.16 mm per year. This turns out to be about 12.5 inches per century, or about 1 inch per decade. Not quite the “20 feet” that Al Gore said would happen soon. So none of these concern me much.

What does concern me is man’s inhumanity to man. This is unlikely to destroy a significant fraction of humanity. But it sure does make life miserable for a large portion of humanity. 

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Tim Farage is a Professor and Graduate Advisor in the Computer Science Department at The University of Texas at Dallas. The views expressed herein are those of the author. He writes about mathematics, computer science, physics, the reconciliation between science and spirituality, Intelligent Design, and the application of Natural Law to our various systems such as education, government and economics. You are welcome to comment upon this blog entry and/or to contact him at tfarage@hotmail.com