What if half the world was sterilized?
 

Offered without editorial comment from the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/op...ooks.html?_r=1

Re: What if half the world was sterilized?
 

Before reading the article, I wondered "why stop at half?" after reading the article and the scenario depicted, I found myself shaking my head in disgreement at some of the author's assumptions.

This assumption that there are meanings bugs me, as the one that children and perpetuation of society are part of that meaning.

First, I saw that dystopian scifi movie. It was enjoyable, but enjoyable does not mean it is a good indicator of what would actually happen. Second, this is pure pro-natalist BS. Within weeks, the children who were there before the sterilizing cosmic rays would still be there and still get the same treatment if not better, as there would be no younger children coming up after them for teachers and whatnot to worry about. Smaller class sizes, lots more attention from adults, those kids could very well have it made.

while that is going on, the demand for children amongst pro-natalists would drive legal and illegal markets for babies, eggs, and sperm from the still-fertile side of the planet.

Re: What if half the world was sterilized?
 

The article made me want to vomit.

"If, say, the Western Hemisphere were sterilized, there would soon be a cataclysmic spiritual crisis. Both Judaism and Christianity are promise-centered faiths. They are based on narratives that lead from Genesis through progressive revelation to a glorious culmination.
Believers’ lives have significance because they and their kind are part of this glorious unfolding. Their faith is suffused with expectation and hope. If they were to learn that they were simply a dead end, they would feel that God had forsaken them, that life was without meaning and purpose."

"...they would feel that god has foresaken them..." Awwww

"Glorious culmination"? "Glorious unfolding"?

Who is this idiot?

Re: What if half the world was sterilized?
 

The "environmental strain" is caused not only by high population but high per capita resource consumption. For example, only around 15 pct of the world's population is responsible for over 60 pct of personal consumption. A country like the U.S. has less than 5 pct of the world's population but has to consume up to 25 pct of world oil production (and generally up to a fourth of various resources) in order to maintain a middle class lifestyle.

Meanwhile, oil production has been in plateau and demand destruction in OECD countries caused by chronic economic crises is being offset by growing middle classes in BRIC and emerging markets.

Finally, some groups, from the U.S. military to Lloyd's of London, believe that oil production may start declining in the near future.

Re: What if half the world was sterilized?
 

What for me really illustrated the depths to which the author has his head buried in the sand is the fact that the "hypothetical" world described in the last three paragraphs bar one (that of countries losing their social cohesion and falling prone to anomie) is the reality on much of the planet. Of course, a well-heeled NYT columnist enjoying his cosy life and lunches over Central Park would hardly be likely to be aware of this inconvenient fact.

Re: What if half the world was sterilized?
 

When you realize 99.9 percent of all species have gone extinct, it's difficult to not feel a sort of apathy for all living things. Envy those organisms that have lived in rocks for millions of years before and after you were born. While probably not capable of critical thinking, they have and will probably live until the sun goes supernova and everything is obliterated in a glorious ray of light.

Re: What if half the world was sterilized?
 

I don't see what there is to envy, apart from the lower level of consciousness of those rock-formation organisms.

Answer to the question posed in the title of this tread: "Then there'd still be the other half to go".

Re: What if half the world was sterilized?
 

You're right, the continued existence of things like that isn't something to envy, apart from their being the likely only remaining species that gets to witness the end as it were, locked in a rock and not getting much of a view of it all.

Re: What if half the world was sterilized?
 

I've always entertained a mild fantasy about being present on the day the sun went nova with a glass of champagne in hand. And I share Aeron's envy of non-conscious geological formations!

Re: What if half the world was sterilized?
 

change one letter, to "Locked ON a rock and not getting much of a view of it all" and you've got humans! We just have a bigger rock, and it has some water and plants on it.

If you zoom out far enough, half the planet getting sterilized would have no visible effect. planets orbit stars that revolve around centers of galaxies. Zoom in close enough and maybe rats, cockroaches, and other vermin that live on human garbage might be impacted by a reduced human population - fewer people would mean less human refuse to feed on, but also fewer exterminators coming after them (assuming the vermin weren't sterilized too).

at a certain distance, though, it's all Stuff On A Rock, and at that distance, the rock would have less stuff on one side.