

David Attenborough wants to lower the global population - sbt
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7996230.stm

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jballanc
Uuuugggghhhh... not more of this...

Look, people, global over-population is probably one of the easiest, most
straight-forward problems to solve, and the solution is really, really easy:

EDUCATE WOMEN

I'm sort on time, but I can dig up the references later today if anyone wants.
The strongest correlating factor with fertility rate is the education level of
a population's women. When women are educated, fertility rate settles just
above 2 children per women, which is right where you'd need it to keep global
population static.

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stewiecat
Along these lines is educating couples that having a family isn't a necessity
in order to be considered 'normal'.

My girlfriend (pseudo-wife at this point) and I get shocked looks from people
when we tell them that we aren't having children, as if we need to have
children in order to be considered a Normal American Family (tm).

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mhb
Given the disparity in birthrates between immigrants and native Britains this
is going to be politically impossible to advocate in any meaningful way.

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vixen99
First step is to determine how many world births are currently unwelcome. Do
we know this? If the number is small then coercion to achieve this aim is
unavoidable. That's a bit euphemistic. Better say, explicit or implicit
(chemical treatment of the water?) implementation by force. Serious proposals
to say the least. Shouldn't Attenborough tell us what he has in mind before
throwing out such a suggestion?

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gaius
I'd take him a bit more seriously on this if he flew a little less. But like
Al Gore, austerity is for other people.

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mhb
Is identifying hypocrisy distinct from or a type of what-aboutery?

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gaius
Also I notice that he has two kids himself. _Other people_ should stop
breeding, tho', right? The wrong kind of people, perhaps?

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AndrewDucker
He doesn't seem to have realised that the birth rate in most of the EU is
_already_ below replenishment rate.

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ftse
We could start with him.

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behe
We could start with the Chinese. They breed like rabbits.

Edit: Downvote me if you like, but you know it's true.

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stewiecat
Kind of hard given that their one-kid rule is 30 years old.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-child_policy>

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behe
I didn't necessarily mean just in China.

