Some people are arguing that the removal of mask mandates in hospitals is a form of eugenics. Tamara Taggart, President of Down Syndrome BC, said on “This is Vancolour,” “This is eugenics, like 100%. So now we don’t care about people. . . . All those people are expensive. I
Continue readingTag: population
Views from the Beltline: The Earth groans
Tuesday, according to the United Nations, was eight billion day, i.e. the world’s population was projected to reach eight billion souls on November 15th. Even if you like people, and my views on that are mixed, that’s a hell of a lot. In fact, it’s too many. And that’s not
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Population Growth & The Environment
There has been a debate going on for over 50 years as to whether the primary cause of the growing environmental crisis is over-population or over-consumption. The debate still continues, even though the facts have been known conclusively for decades. Consider what we know to be the established facts. 60%
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: The Baby Boosters
According to the Worldometer (the world population clock), at 12:22 p.m. today the planet’s population of Homo sapiens was 7,769,974,138 with a net gain (births over deaths) of 114,862 so far this morning. You might think this was more than enough of us, given that we are multiplying on the
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Let’s Talk about Population! (ducking projectiles)
Back in November, 11,000 scientists declared that we need to stabilize or gradually reduce the global population. Since then, I’ve bumped into a few people, online and in real life, who become absolutely irate at the suggestion that climate change is in any way affected by the growing population on
Continue readingThings Are Good: Let’s Empty Half the Earth of People
The housing pattern pictured above is not sustainable, nor is how we as a species consume the planet’s resources. A way to think about our sustainability is to think of it as an annual budget and by August we’ve already consumed our annual supply of renewable resources, meaning the rest
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: The irony of Italy’s immigration policy
Italy has a baby problem. Apparently Italians aren’t making enough of them. The country’s birth rate is the lowest it’s been since Italy itself was born in 1861. With deaths now greatly exceeding births, the population is shrinking. “We are in a terrible state,” says Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini,
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: What Exponential Growth Looks Like
It’s a mesmerizing 6 minute video: It’s interesting what they focus on and what they leave out. Here’s where we’re headed:
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: What Exponential Growth Looks Like
It’s a mesmerizing 6 minute video: It’s interesting what they focus on and what they leave out. Here’s where we’re headed:
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Our Right to Choose
I understand gender identity and sexual orientation both as potentially fluid. It’s not the case that they can be made to change, so we still need to ban straightenating camps and the like, but that they can sometimes evolve over time. Or, if they’re …
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Our Right to Choose
I understand gender identity and sexual orientation both as potentially fluid. It’s not the case that they can be made to change, so we still need to ban straightenating camps and the like, but that they can sometimes evolve over time. Or, if they’re …
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Cult of Living Large
2015, we’re told, is the year the developed world (that’s us) and the emerging economies (China, India, etc., etc., etc.) will close ranks to formulate an effective plan of action to fight climate change. It’s going to be Kyoto on steroids, a true hallelujah moment, a meeting of minds, a
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Coming Soon – 3-Billion More "Big Mouths" to Feed
The world’s middle class is on the verge of a population explosion. Sorry, Earth. Of the 7+ billion people on the planet today, about 1.8-billion are considered middle-class or make that consumer class. By 2030 that sub-2 billion is expected to burgeon to just under 5-billion strong, churning away on
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: I Believe the Children Are Our Future: Barf
Faisal and Azeem, getting it done! Platitudes and paternalism aside, the 21st century actually does belong to the young. And not that they’re OUR future, like an extension of us, but that we are stewarding the future for them. And we’re doing a pretty horrible job of it. But since
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Children, health and the medical fools who focus on BMI
Who are these fools that believe it’s okay to measure a child’s BMI (Body Mass Index), label them as overweight and decide to call it a day because they think they taught someone about health? “[A] paper published today by the American Academy of Pediatrics argues that weighing and measuring the height
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Is It Really That Hard to Imagine Cities Without Cars?
A blissful infographic of imaginative paradigm mechanics! Probably. That’s why really creative paradigm mechanics are thinking outside the box-y sedans to figure out how we could reorient cities and movement in cities with a changed premise: no cars. Imagine how much parking space we’d free up for human pursuits? Imagine
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: #SpinAlert: Light Rail for the Valley Instead of a UBC Subway
Who Framed Roger Rabbit reminded us all of the Great American Streetcar Scandal: cars over mass transit. Now, in the lower mainland we have the UBC tunnel over light rail to the valley. This week, we start with a transportation spin alert. Last week, Allen Garr wrote an interesting piece
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Teens and 40s #nlpoli
As the last instalment in our survey of birth rates, let’s take a look at the group 15 to 19 and the other end of the scale for statistics, women aged 40-44 at the time of the child’s birth. The blue line is the number of births to mothers between
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The 30-Somethings #nlpoli
The number of babies born to mothers in their 30s in Newfoundland and Labrador has declined over the past couple of decades. But the drop isn’t as dramatic as the decline among the 20-somethings. What stands out in this chart is the way the older age cohort – 35-39 –
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The 20-Something Birth Rates #nlpoli
As we told you a couple of weeks ago, it doesn’t look like the provincial government’s policy of paying cash for live births produced any improvement in the birthrate in the province except for the year they announced the bonus cash. If you look at the number of births by
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