Archive for population

Move over “people of faith”: “I suggest that we atheists and agnostics be referred to as ‘people of evidence’.”

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Today’s L.A. Times letters to the editor, Part 2, because our voices matter:

The problem is too many people

Re “The greening of faith,” Opinion, Feb. 27

Encouraging as “green” trends within some religions may be, none appears inclined to address the root problem spurring environmental degradation: rampant overpopulation of the planet.

Indeed, certain religions seem hell-bent (as it were) on disproportionately propagating their adherents’ numbers. Catholicism and Mormonism famously encourage large families. How illuminating, that two GOP presidential candidates — Rick Santorum, a Catholic, and Mitt Romney, a Mormon — between them have fathered 13 children.

If all couples followed these candidates’ improvident examples, the Earth’s population would triple in a generation. Enlightened environmentalist voters should shun them both.

Gary Dolgin

Santa Monica

***

I keep hearing political candidates and pundits refer to religious folks as “people of faith,” as this Op-Ed article does.

So I suggest that we atheists and agnostics be referred to as “people of evidence.”

Brent Meeker

Camarillo

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Births, not new immigrants, push US Latino growth

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You realize how tasty this is, right? One of the biggest things they rally for (“family values”) maybe the real impetuous of one of the biggest things they are afraid of (fear of a “brown” country). Gotta love it.

Associated Press WASHINGTON – With immigration slowing, babies born in the U.S. rather than newly arrived Mexican immigrants are now driving most of the fast growth in the Latino population.

A new analysis of census data highlights a turning point in Hispanics’ rapid U.S. growth. Demographers point to the potential for broader political impact as U.S.-born Mexican-Americans widen their numbers over non-citizen, foreign-born counterparts, who wield no voting rights.

“As these young Latinos age, they will enter public schools, participate in the nation’s economy as workers and consumers, and enter the growing pool of Hispanic eligible voters,” said Mark Hugo Lopez, associate director of the Pew Hispanic Center, who co-authored the study released Thursday.

(snip)

Currently, the median age of Mexican-Americans is 25, compared to 30 for other Hispanic subgroups, 32 for blacks and 41 for whites. Mexican-American women typically will have given birth to 2.5 children by their mid-40s, higher than for other groups.

Meanwhile, immigration from Mexico has fallen off in recent years, dropping by 60 percent since 2006 after a souring U.S. economy and stepped-up border enforcement made it harder and less desirable for undocumented workers to enter the country. As a result, the number of new immigrants from Mexico declined over the last decade to 4.2 million, from 4.7 million in 1990-2000.

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Hispanics outnumber blacks in majority of U.S. metropolitan areas, Census shows

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I hope the DNC is paying attention

New Census figures show that Hispanics outnumber blacks for the first time in most U.S. metropolitan areas.

Hispanics became the largest minority group in 191 of 366 metro areas last year. Their population was lifted as blacks left many economically hard-hit cities in the North for the South and new Latino immigrants spread to different parts of the country. That number is up from 159 metro areas in 2000, when Hispanics were most commonly found in southwestern border states.

The new areas for Hispanics include Chicago, Illinois; Grand Rapids, Michigan; and Atlantic City, New Jersey.

The numbers from the 2010 count are having a big effect in many states, where political maps are being redrawn based on population size and racial makeup.

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Quickie: Jonah Goldberg is an idiot

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Today’s Quickie:

According to Wikipedia, the population of China is 1,341,880,000.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau website, the world population is 6,894,940,672.

According to Jonah Goldberg, China has “700 billion very poor people”:

Then there are China’s very real problems. China has 700 billion very poor people. By 2050, it will have 400 million very old people.

In today’s L.A. Times, there is a correction that says the following in regard to an op-ed written by Jonah Goldberg called “America’s China Syndrome” (verbatim):

FOR THE RECORD:
China: In his Jan. 18 column, Jonah Goldberg wrote that China has 700 billion very poor people. The estimated number of Chinese living in poverty is 300 million.

Jonah Goldberg is an idiot.

That was today’s Quickie. Was it good for you?

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VIDEO: By 2011 there will be 7 billion people on earth

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[National Geographic Magazine] introduces the series with its January cover story “7 Billion,” offering a broad overview of demographic trends that got us to today and will impact us all tomorrow. The first in-depth story will appear in the March issue, focusing on humans’ impact on the planet’s geology. Other stories will follow throughout 2011.

Kinda puts things in perspective, doesn’t it?

H/t: Double Dutch Politics

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New population count bad news for Obama 2012 presidential bid

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Oh swell. Just what the Dems need, more bad news:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The 2010 census report coming out Tuesday will include a boatload of good political news for Republicans and grim data for Democrats hoping to re-elect President Barack Obama and rebound from last month’s devastating elections.

The population continues to shift from Democratic-leaning Rust Belt states to Republican-leaning Sun Belt states, a trend the Census Bureau will detail in its once-a-decade report to the president. Political clout shifts, too, because the nation must reapportion the 435 House districts to make them roughly equal in population, based on the latest census figures.

The biggest gainer will be Texas, a GOP-dominated state expected to gain up to four new House seats, for a total of 36. The chief losers — New York and Ohio, each projected by nongovernment analysts to lose two seats — were carried by Obama in 2008 and are typical of states in the Northeast and Midwest that are declining in political influence.

Democrats’ problems don’t end there.

Yes, that’s a cliffhanger. For more depressing news, follow the link.

[banghead.gif]

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Recession may have pushed US birth rate to new low

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I bet I’d be even more disturbed by this if I really understood what happened in Japan.

The U.S. birth rate has dropped for the second year in a row, and experts think the wrenching recession led many people to put off having children. The 2009 birth rate also set a record: lowest in a century.

Births fell 2.7 percent last year even as the population grew, numbers released Friday by the National Center for Health Statistics show.

“It’s a good-sized decline for one year. Every month is showing a decline from the year before,” said Stephanie Ventura, the demographer who oversaw the report.

The birth rate, which takes into account changes in the population, fell to 13.5 births for every 1,000 people last year. That’s down from 14.3 in 2007 and way down from 30 in 1909, when it was common for people to have big families.

(snip)

“There is quite possibly a connection between the decline in births and the economic downturn,” says the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which includes the health statistics center. “More details on the demographics of mothers who gave birth in 2009 are needed to more strongly make this connection.”

Another possible factor in the drop: a decline in immigration to the United States.

The downward trend invites worrisome comparisons to Japan and its lost decade of choked growth in the 1990s and very low birth rates. Births in Japan fell 2 percent in 2009 after a slight rise in 2008, its government has said.

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