Thursday, November 29, 2007, 2:53:57 PM, Steve Brewer wrote: SB> I wonder how many ecologists in the U.S., however, have considered SB> that producing children is necessary to keep Social Security from SB> collapsing. ...
Steve, I completely agree with you. However, although I certainly respect people who don't want to have children on an individual basis, I can't help but thinking that they're a tad selfish as an opinion group. Our countries need a stable demographic structure to keep Social Security and our economy running, but the demographic structure is actually changing because we live longer than the previous generations. This means that, even in case birth rate don't change, the number of retired people is increasing as well as the per capita health expenditure. >From a U.S. point of view some people might consider a decrease in birth rate as a minor issue if compared with global environmental threats, but in Italy we're experiencing negative demographic growth since many years and this has led to a continuous population decrease and to an increased number of aged people who need more and more cares. In Italy - and in other European countries - negative population growth rates are balanced thanks to increasing immigration rates. Setting aside social and cultural issues, as a matter of fact 99.9% immigrants don't care about carbon footprints, so they have (much) more children than Italian and European families. Moreover, most immigrants send money to their families in their home countries, where this money is spent to cut forests, to burn more gasoline in old cars, etc. So, the equation "less children=smaller footprint" only holds for a theoretic scenario, involving a very rich and completely isolated country. I don't think such a place exists on this world, but, please, point me to it in case you know one. All the best, Michele -------------------------------- Michele Scardi Associate Professor of Ecology Department of Biology University of Rome "Tor Vergata" Via della Ricerca Scientifica 00133 Roma Italy http://www.mare-net.com/mscardi --------------------------------
