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jokuhl on March 22, 2008 - 4:43pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

tstreet;
We had a sustainable development discussion in Portland Maine yesterday, with the Mayor and the most recent State Energy 'czar' (!!??) in attendance. Keynote by [Charlie Stephens
Adjuvant Consulting, Oak Grove, Oregon ] , who spoke very directly about PO, Rail Efficiencies, etc..

His comment when he was posed the population question was first, that the best effects we've had on fertility rates are happening where educational and international efforts are raising the status and education of women in their societies, citing Mexico's fertility going from around 6 down to 2.6 after such changes (another poster at Drumbeat? today said the Church had cancelled out such gains.. not sure which is right.)

His second was the incongruity of the US consumption of 25% of the gross energy, with 4%(?) of the global pop, and so that for him this discrepancy was actually his priority.

I don't dismiss the importance of Population overall, but I wonder if the US Birthrate would make this our key issue in terms of Stateside changes needed.

Bob Fiske

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joemichaels on March 22, 2008 - 8:05pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I was the poster that cited the Catholic Church shutting down Planned Parenthood Centers in Mexico during the 60's and 70's. That was when their fertility rate was almost 10% annually. Even if we could herald the "good news" of 2.5% that still means a net gain annually of more than 3,000,000 people. Even at a 2.5% annual fertility rate it takes only 28 years for that population to double.

We better make that fence high...

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FuturePundit on March 23, 2008 - 3:52pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

We need to drastically cut back immigration and only let in high skilled engineers and scientists.

Also, we need to fund more research into birth control methods.

Also, we need to shift our foreign aid more toward birth control. Poor women in the Third World should be able to get free contraceptives and should be taught family planning.

Also, girls should be encouraged to stay in school since the greater the number of years of education the fewer babies women have. The poor teen girls should have their high school education funded and get free lunches in Africa and other super poor places.

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jokuhl on March 23, 2008 - 5:25pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

'only let in high skilled engineers and scientists...'

Cause they will take jobs that most Americans won't (train for).

BTW, will that wall help to keep OUR engineers from leaving?

Bob

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FuturePundit on March 23, 2008 - 6:51pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Where would our engineers go? Where in the post-peak world will be better off? France maybe?

I can tell you I'm not going to China for the same reason I do not smoke cigarettes.

Jobs we won't train for: I can say as someone who has a lot of software developers reporting to me that the limit isn't how many people will get training but how smart the average person is. I have a very hard time using someone with less than 120 IQ because they can't follow the complex chains of thought and can't picture all the interacting pieces. Mind you, there are simpler forms of software development like web page scripting. But for the stuff I do I need smarties.

Some of the best software developers I know do not have C.S. degrees. One of the absolutely best ones I know never went to college. Training? Thinking is the hard part.

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100 comments on Green Jobs

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