By John Ballard
So you don't have enough on your plate?
Here's an off-the-wall take on some serious issues. Fasten your seatbelt.
Is human population expanding? Or dwindling? Should we neuter ourselves at the SPCA? Or multiply like the Octomom? The answer is... both?! Yes. Depending on your GPS coordinates, human numbers are wiggling UP like sperm in an unprotected vaginal canal, or swirling DOWN like a condom in a flushed toilet. Humanity is simultaneously exploding and imploding.
Who�s always pregnant? Niger is Fertility Champ with its women producing an average of 7.19 children each. Malaria removes 20% of the tots, but Niger�s population still expands at a 3.49 annual population growth (PG) rate, good for 6th place behind Liberia, Burundi, Afghanistan, Western Sahara, and East Timor. Liberia�s population will double in 16 years, in Niger it�ll drag out to 20.
Meanwhile, where�s India in the overpopulation picture? China? Pakistan? Indonesia? The Philippines? The United States? Ethiopia? Egypt? Nigeria? Bangladesh, drowning under the weight of its multitudes? These large, dense nations have PG rates smaller than the premier baby-makers, but their enormous base numbers make them the primary contributors to the global increase. India accounts for 21% of all children born, and around 60% hail from the ten nations listed above. Earth�s current population of 6.8 billion is definitely increasing, but experts suggest different forecasts�the United Nations warns of 8.9 billion in 2050, while The Quaker Economist suggests only an incremental 7.0 billion peak by 2040.
Fertility rates have been in a global free-fall for decades: Thailand dropped 50% since 1950, Colombia 60%, Hong Kong 75%, Brazil 50% in the last 25 years. By 2050 implosion is predicted in at least 39 nations, with histrionic forecasters claiming 75% of nations will exhibit decline. (The variability of estimates is due to United Nations graphs that exhibit a wide range between high and low projections.) Russia, Japan and other current shrinkers may lose 14%-40% of their citizenry. 104 million Europeans might vanish, dropping their continent to a mere 7% of the world total. Canadians and Latin Americans will halt or decrease. China, with its one-child policy, could lose 20% or more of its populace. Even India might stabilize; the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu already dropped below ZPG in 2003. The only populations assured of expansion in 2050 are the Middle East, Africa... and the USA, where immigrants and their offspring could buoy America 25% to approximately 420 million.
(1) Be an active, visionary oldster! You�ll be the Dominant Demographic. By 2050, the age group 65+ will be more than 50% of the population in many parts of the world. We�ll be the wisest, most astute policymakers in history, maybe smart enough to hand leadership over to ethical robots (but that�s another topic).
(2) Support �friendly� mass immigration. For every mullah demanding sharia law, there are dozens of commendable refugees seeking liberation, like Taslima Nazrin and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Perhaps Europe can purchase �sex criminals� from the Middle East (i.e., teenagers caught kissing, homosexuals, adulterers, and rape victims), rescuing them before they get their noses cut off, or they�re stoned to death, or punished in �honor killings.�
Explosion. Implosion. Let the challenges gestate in your mind, but stay optimistic.
I'm too exhausted from reading to write about it.
As I'm fond of telling people who whine about Europe's population crashing, there's no shortage of hairless monkeys on this planet. What there is, is a shortage of hairless monkeys who happen to be the same race and color as the racist fucks in Europe who slammed the door shut on immigration of primarily-dark-skinned people from outside Europe. And the only reason the USA hasn't gone the same way of demographic collapse is because the border with Mexico is so long and rugged that it's basically unguardable, so even though the USA has the same number of racist assholes as Europe (see: Republican, Party of Deep South, The), well... President Obama. 'Nuff said on that. The racists are loud and violent but they've been outbred and out-immigrated in the USA and no amount of caterwauling on their part is gonna change that, meow.
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