On the train from Zaventem Luchthaven to Mechelen, I got into a conversation with a tall German fellow living in Lyon, France, and regularly commuting 100 miles to Switzerland to work for Dupont. Occasionally, he travels to one of Dupont's largest facilities in the world--in Mechelen!
Somehow we got to talking about the state of planet. Thinking of the conversation I'd had with a woman I'd met on the train to New Haven, I commented on how puzzled I was by high school friends who were impatient to have five or more children, to which he replied that Europe was facing a baby deficit that could have severe economic consequences.
The economy is absolutely important, but it nevertheless leaves me frustrated and angry that Europe is trying to promote a new baby boom. Having a mother or father around full time is important, and when women are in the workplace, parents can't take care of that many children well. More importantly, there are uncounted numbers of unwanted children in the world. And European governments are spending their budgets on encouraging people to have babies who will consume the food that starving children and orphans will never have.
Mother earth does not need more people. Every 20 minutes, the human population grows by about 3,000. The current global population of 6 billion people exceeds the earth's capacity to sustain present standards of living by about 30%. We're going to have much larger problems on our hands than European policy revisions in a couple of decades.
I am afraid sometimes for the future in which I'm trying to carry out my plans. Will any of my hopes be relevant or practicable by then?
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