Reply #9: China tried to forcibly control population

[Boomer]

Only the Chinese have taken the issue of population control seriously enough to mandate -- not just advocate -- change.

The result? The Chinese government was roundly criticized by the West, but even with the force of criminal penalties, they had difficulty maintaining the one-child restriction. The unintended consequences were a rise in female infanticide and a resultant (duh!) shortage of females for all those surviving males to marry upon adulthood.

The West does NOT have the stomach for that kind of solution, and frankly, anything short of a gun pointed at people's heads is unlikely to stem the flow of babies.

I have no children, but that was more the result of my lack of maternal instincts than it was a philosophical decision made when I was young and fertile. My neighbors, family, co-workers are all happily spawning as fast as they can. The good of the planet is a nebulous concept, far too nebulous for them to sacrifice parenthood.

Claiming that people "could" change their ways and save the planet sounds so much like a fact. But human behavior is deeply rooted in instinctual behavior and cultural patterns that make change of that order unlikely. The fact that certain individuals can react to a far seen danger does not make it possible for all people and their established institutions to react equally rationally.

Cassandra is a metaphor that holds all too true for the present.