The Oil Drum

254 comments on DrumBeat: February 18, 2007

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sf on February 18, 2007 - 1:51pm

China at least is making a very serious effort to limit its population. The US, on the other hand, admits as refugees those Chinese illegal aliens who claim they are oppressed by the one-child policy.

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dmathew1 on February 18, 2007 - 2:07pm

Hello sf,

China at least is making a very serious effort to limit its population. The US, on the other hand, admits as refugees those Chinese illegal aliens who claim they are oppressed by the one-child policy.

China has more than 1,315,844,000 citizens(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Republic_of_China), greater than the entire population of North America (518,000,000: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_America). So if China is limiting its population it is not doing so very effectively.

Anyhow, limiting population is a futile endeavor while China is not limiting consumption.

China's got a bleak future just as North America has a bleak future. We are all in this boat together and the boat is sinking.

David Mathews
http://www.geocities.com/dmathew1

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sf on February 18, 2007 - 2:31pm

I'm not trying to minimize the impact of consumerism but population is half of the equation. China's population will take a while to stabilize, and possibly diminish, because the current generation of fertile women was born before the current population policies became effective. Whether this will happen in time is an open question.