Climate Change, Morals Change and Pyramids
ProLifeCorner- By Larry Plachno
Many people are concerned with the future of our world. Several of them are willing to take action or do things to improve the future. However, those who actually watch the statistics and reports are suggesting that we are being guided in the wrong direction. They submit that it is Morals Change and not Climate Change that has the biggest negative impact on humanity in the future.
Climate concerns have been in the news for generations. But climate change has been around since God created our earth. In many ways, we could not survive without climate change. If winter did not change into spring we would not have crops or flowers. If summer did not change into autumn we would miss those harvests and beautiful fall colors. Human life as we know it depends on climate and seasonal changes.
Current research suggests that climate tends to be more of a local thing rather than a global thing. This is why one place can say that it is cooling while another place can say that it is warming. Yet, in spite of climate change including bad weather, storms and other things, we are still here and our world is still here.
In September of 2019, Breitbart put together a list of more than 40 dire predictions by “experts” over the past 50 years suggesting that we are facing major disasters that will devastate our world and make life difficult or impossible. These include forthcoming ice ages, global warming, acid rain, Manhattan going underwater and a number of other interesting things including one prediction that warming will prevent kids from knowing what snow is. Many of them predicted damaging changes in specific times like 500 days, 20 years or in a specific forthcoming year like 1975, 1989, 2000, 2010 or 2020. They all have one thing in common: none of them ever took place.
In comparison it is being suggested that Morals Change is devastating humanity and there are actual and proven statistics to show this. As people moved away from God, moved away from Church, and moved away from marriage, family and children while legitimizing abortion, there has been a major negative impact on humans and our world.
Some historians are very concerned. They point out that what is happening in our society today matches what killed Roman society nearly 2,000 years ago. Octavian was named Caesar Augustus in 27 B.C. He realized that a strong state required strong families so he began to reform laws concerning the family. He worked against childlessness, family limiting, contraception, abortion and infanticide. He even offered tax breaks to large families as well as rewards, property and job promotions. Augustus promoted childbearing over abortion, imposed strict marriage laws and changed adultery from an act of indecency to an act of sedition. Abortion itself became a crime in the Roman Empire in the Third Century. In spite of all of this the Romans continued to move away from family as well as children and the Roman Empire still fell apart.
The result of this movement away from God, family and children has been a major drop in fertility rates. Fewer children are being born, particularly in developed countries. This is causing two major negative changes to humanity. One is simply a reduction in population while the second is a major change in demographics. Both do not bode well for the future of humanity.
Experts agree that a birthrate of 2.1 (2.1 children per woman) is necessary to maintain a population at current levels. Birthrates in most developed countries have declined substantially as people move away from families and children. Some countries and societies have seen their birthrate drop to 1.05 or less; effectively suggesting that overall population drops in half in that country with each generation.
This brings up two concerns. One is that major parts of humanity are becoming endangered species. When the population of a particular group drops in half with each generation, they are disappearing from the face of our earth. Biologists would normally panic about finding this situation in a particular species but here the problem is with humanity. While some people are worried that global warming or cooling with kill our society, the real killer is our movement away from God, family and children that is reducing our population in substantial numbers.
Some people bring up another concern. In spite of this decrease in population, many governments are borrowing from the future to spend today. With this decline in population, this kind of thing puts a greater burden on future generations that will have fewer people to pay that debt. Logically, we should be paying off our debts and stocking up reserves to make it easier for the fewer people who will come after us.
Worldwide, the global fertility rate is currently at about 2.3 but there are wide differences between countries and societies, with developed countries typically having a lower birthrate. There are 23 countries that have birthrates that will see their population drop in half with each new generation. Asia, where immigration is low, has been hit particularly hard. The birthrate in Singapore is down to 1.16 while Hong Kong has dropped to a fertility rate of 1.09. In Taiwan, the fertility rate is down to 0.9 – less than half of replacement level. South Korea is now spending substantial money supporting families and children.
China has particular problems because of its infamous “one child policy” that was instituted in 1980. Worse yet, this policy created an imbalance in gender when parents aborted baby girls but kept boys who could support them in their old age. China now has 34 million more men than women and many Chinese men are unable to find a spouse. This adds to the birthrate problem. China subsequently went to a two-child policy in 2016 and more recently has moved away from family planning. Japan has similar concerns. Japan’s population peaked at 128 million in 2017 but is expected to drop down to less than 53 million by the end of this Century.
Several European countries now have fertility rates that have dropped to 1.4 or less, suggesting that their population will decline by one-third with each generation. Russia’s fertility rate has dropped to 1.2. Spain is at 1.48 while Germany and Italy are near 1.4. Venice now has more tourists than residents and has already held a mock funeral for itself. A Eurostat forecast says that by 2080, indigenous Italians will become a minority in Italy as people of African or Asian descent will make up more than 50 percent of the population. But this is also a worldwide problem because studies suggest that the global fertility rate will drop below 1.7 by 2100.
So where do the pyramids come in? The second problem with reduced birthrates is that they negatively impact demographics. A good place to start to explain this is in China. Their one-child-policy has created a situation that the Chinese call 4-2-1. This means that one young person may have to support two parents and four grandparents. Even with multi-generational households, this is difficult in the extreme. This same situation is increasingly being repeated around the world and is becoming a major problem for many societies.
Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act in 1935. In those years the United States was struggling to return to normal from the Stock Market Crash and the following Depression. But there was logic behind Social Security because there were numbers of working people who could support fewer retired people. The demographics of our society at that time had been likened to a conventional pyramid. At the base were numerous babies, further up were working people and there were fewer retired people at the top.
Two things have happened in subsequent years. One is that fewer babies are being born. The other is that medicine and health procedures have improved longevity and we now have more older and retired individuals. Some people now call this demographic design an inverted pyramid with fewer babies at the bottom and a lot more older and retired people at the top. Actually, this is not totally true since the geometric design might be closer to the “diamond” on a set of playing cards.
Regardless of what design you pick, this is a major problem for societies. Many countries or groups are reaching a point where there is simply not enough young people and workers to support and care for the elderly and retired. In 2030, the United States will have more retired people than children for the first time in its history. But other places are in worse shape.
In 2050, China will have more than 330 million people older than 65. Due to the one-child policy, China’s labor force has been declining and soon their total population will start to decline. It has been suggested that India will pick up what China cannot handle. Meanwhile, since 2011 Japan has been selling more adult diapers than baby diapers. By 2040 there will be one Japanese citizen above the age of 100 for every baby born. There are predictions that in 2050 only 28 percent of Japan’s population will be of working age. This is why they are trying to use robots for production.
Will people continue to worry about Climate Change in spite of the fact that none of the dire predictions seem to happen? Or should people worry about Morals Change and moving away from God, marriage, families and babies where the negative and very frightening statistics are obvious and are already happening? Much of humanity is becoming an endangered species by our own doing and we are creating major problems with unworkable and disastrous demographics. If you are worried about our world then help encourage having children who will support our aging population and who will become the doctors, nurses and bus drivers we will need as we age.
All of this makes one wonder whether God’s laws and commandments are religious and moral or simply the way that is best for us. Since a simple definition for society is “people working together for common goals,” God may well have given us laws like a parent gives to children . . . for their own good. When we ignore those laws we get into trouble.
AMDG
