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A Habitable World?

Submitted by joe hitchens, Jul 16, 2007 14:32

Mark, you keep harping on about 'replacement level' reproduction being so important. The implication being that every country in the world today is at its optimum population level. Since population levels have varied throughout human history, without any impact on the survival of any particular country, what you are saying is nonsense. Trying to persuade people who dont want children to just go ahead and have them anyway, is asking for trouble in terms of neglect, abuse, mental health (of reluctant parents and their kids) and crime etc. I guess the way you see it is any western baby, no matter how he/she turns out, is better than a baby born in a developing country.


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Other reader comments on this article

Comment By Date

If you think that people of certain countries will have no impact on climate change, think again. The true heart... [MORE]

Glenn 

Aug 2, 2007 17:49

Uh oh, we are besieged by ruinous demographic decline! There's only 6 and a half billion of us left!! Quick,... [MORE]

Jeffrey Kroll 

Jul 17, 2007 16:07

Mark, You talk sense while making me laugh, and we will need lots of logic and laughter to combat the... [MORE]

Bill Brunhofer 

Jul 17, 2007 13:33

Al Gore new band for the next dead earth concert [MORE]

Karen 

Jul 17, 2007 08:19

Whereas I enjoy watching the spectacle of the left's latest folly, "global changing" and the chanting of so many wise... [MORE]

John Reeves 

Jul 17, 2007 00:45

There is only one thing I can say about Live Aid and those around the world who want to "save"... [MORE]

Mario 

Jul 16, 2007 21:14

Men need not leave it up to women, equipped as they are with contraceptive pills, IUDs, and the addresses of... [MORE]

Kralizec 

Jul 16, 2007 19:31

Apparently, the population of the developed world isn't shrinking fast enough to suit the intellectual elite'; they wanted Zero Population... [MORE]

eon 

Jul 16, 2007 17:27

Writing you Mark, just because I so enjoy, admire and appreciate your work ... don't really expect you to respond... [MORE]

Bill Griffiths 

Jul 16, 2007 17:00

Good thing that the world plant community hasn't yet figured out how to hire an attorney to stop the "anti-CO2... [MORE]

owen leach 

Jul 16, 2007 16:36

Nigeria and Yemen are not included in their equation because population reduction and saving the environment are not the point.... [MORE]

Assistant Village Idiot 

Jul 16, 2007 16:26

Always refreshing to read a Steyn review, especially if it's musically as well as politically involved.... kind of a confluence... [MORE]

Eugene Wager 

Jul 16, 2007 14:57

Mark, you keep harping on about 'replacement level' reproduction being so important. The implication being that every country in the...

joe hitchens 

Jul 16, 2007 14:32

Hi Mr. Hitchens; You are wrong demographics have had no impact on the survival of countries. During the late 19th century... [MORE]

Ruy Diaz 

Jul 16, 2007 16:21

"......what you are saying is nonsense. Trying to persuade people...." I guess I missed that, I'll have to re-read it [MORE]

Blandly Urbane 

Jul 16, 2007 17:00

Joe, you're completely missing the point. Mark isn't suggesting that the worlds population as a whole is going to drop... [MORE]

Sam B 

Jul 16, 2007 17:43

Joe: Mark's numbers don't lie. A larger percentage of Europeans will disappear this century than any other, including the centuries... [MORE]

steyn fan 

Jul 16, 2007 18:40

Just think - some nuts want to have Al Gore for President - can you imagine the White House all... [MORE]

James 

Jul 17, 2007 01:10

Joe, this is not about optimality. Here is some arithmetic: The world has, say, 6 billion people. Assume that the... [MORE]

supermartingale 

Jul 17, 2007 02:55

Joe: You take Mark to task for going on and on about sustainable reproduction rates for nations. After all, you... [MORE]

Rick Gibson 

Jul 17, 2007 04:10

If you had read America Alone as I have, you would understand that replacement level of population has nothing to... [MORE]

Andrew K 

Jul 17, 2007 04:58

I do hope the good professor follows his own dictum off putting future generations into his own hands. And washes... [MORE]

Wolf Terner 

Jul 16, 2007 14:00

Rock musicians are all deaf and their audiences are little better. So should we be talking about a carbon earprint?... [MORE]

richard sutherland 

Jul 16, 2007 12:28

I would invite all liberals to stop having any children at all. My conservative friends and I will be happy... [MORE]

Sue 

Jul 16, 2007 11:50

Few years back, Bill Bryson, another American who's world famous but for things other than stiff neck and lack of... [MORE]

Boris Ben 

Jul 16, 2007 11:47

If people in the UK have 1 less child it will mean they will bring in one more immigrant so... [MORE]

marginalizedactiondinosaur.net 

Jul 16, 2007 09:47

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