Comments Trucha has made

Going Down - I'm sorry, what's the issue exactly?

While I enjoy, agree with and am often entertained by most everything I read in Grist, "Going Down" left me thinking, "huh?" The author takes an extraordinary amount of space to not present anything really all that worrisome.

What exactly are the conerns here? That we may someday have a lot of immigrants in European countries working in low wage jobs?!? While not an ideal situation, is it all that different than the present one? And this seems like a deep-seated social issue, not one caused by depopulation. And clearly, "depopulation isn't really what's happening -  it's just population shift. To be honest, after years of colonial pillaging, I have little sympathy for countries like France that now have to deal with integrating people from the countries they robbed from for so many years. It is a serious issue, and one for which I see no easy solutions, but it really has little to do with "depopulation."

And what were the other issues to be concerned about here? That all those folks collecting pension plans will drain monetary resources from "green projects?" Please - a fraction of many countries' bloated military budgets could bridge the gap in a heartbeat. The issue isn't there isn't a result of people collecting pensions as much as it is the western military-industrial complex having warped priorities.

As the Mr. Wendling admits, the world's population is still growing, regardless.  And the effects of that far outweigh whatever miniscule and over-dramatized impacts may be felt from declining populations in some limited areas. Frankly, with real issues worthy of serious concern, whether or not the aging population of some small town in northern England can find suitable young people to mate with and do their work for them is pretty low on my list. Yawn....On When it comes to having kids, this global citizen can't bear it posted 3 years, 11 months ago 13 Responses

Going Down - I'm sorry, what's the issue exactly?

While I enjoy, agree with and am often entertained by most everything I read in Grist, "Going Down" left me thinking, "huh?" The author takes an extraordinary amount of space to not present anything really all that worrisome.

What exactly are the conerns here? That we may someday have a lot of immigrants in European countries working in low wage jobs?!? While not an ideal situation, is it all that different than the present one? And this seems like a deep-seated social issue, not one caused by depopulation. And clearly, "depopulation isn't really what's happening -  it's just population shift. To be honest, after years of colonial pillaging, I have little sympathy for countries like France that now have to deal with integrating people from the countries they robbed from for so many years. It is a serious issue, and one for which I see no easy solutions, but it really has little to do with "depopulation."

And what were the other issues to be concerned about here? That all those folks collecting pension plans will drain monetary resources from "green projects?" Please - a fraction of many countries' bloated military budgets could bridge the gap in a heartbeat. The issue isn't there isn't a result of people collecting pensions as much as it is the western military-industrial complex having warped priorities.

As the Mr. Wendling admits, the world's population is still growing, regardless.  And the effects of that far outweigh whatever miniscule and over-dramatized impacts may be felt from declining populations in some limited areas. Frankly, with real issues worthy of serious concern, whether or not the aging population of some small town in northern England can find suitable young people to mate with and do their work for them is pretty low on my list. Yawn....On Is too few people the new "population problem"? posted 3 years, 11 months ago 13 Responses

Drowning Myself in the Gene Pool

So glad to see this being discussed. I'm amazed at how many environmentally-minded people I know can agree in the abstract that overpopulation is the root of just about every environmental problem we're facing, but won't apply it personally.  Or they use the logic that since they're a couple, it's ok to have 2 kids, because it keeps the number neutral - doesn't that assume that we are currently at a desirable population level, and not long past it?

My wife and I love kids, and have many children in our lives  through our friends, but neither of us feel any real desire to reproduce. So why do I often get the feeling that when we tell people that, there's this underlying assumption that its really me, as the "male" that doesn't want kids and my wife is just aquiescing? She feels just as strongly about it as I do! Environmental issues aside, we also consider the impact it would have on our lives, and we see friends who have no free time, look exhausted all the time, can't just spontaneously go out to a movie or dinner, and we know that its not for us - we enjoy our free time, and the lack of pressure of having to make "x" amount of salary to start saving forr universities, etc.

I've actually heard people say its "selfish" not to reproduce, and to value your own time and energy over having children - what's more selfish than acknowledging overpopulation is a serious issue, but you're going to have kids anyway?On Population activist David Nova took his message to the trail posted 3 years, 11 months ago 13 Responses