Denying Problems When We Don’t Like the Solutions (perhaps somewhat off-topic)

[OKIsItJustMe]

10. Uh huh

It’s useful to look at “Human nature” as a product of “Nature.” Long before the term “tool monkey” gained it’s popularity, I was a fan of Desmond Morris.

For what it’s worth, although we are primates, we are not monkeys.

However (for example) testing a new medicine on other primates is not the same as testing it on humans. We are different.

As for us being, “stuck with the dynamics of growth to and beyond the carrying limits of our environment as any troop of monkeys.” Well, this is an article of faith for you, but not for me.

You see, it doesn’t match up with statistics. Total fertility rates vary dramatically in the world.


Here in the US, we could support much higher population, but our fertility rate has dropped. In Africa, they have a higher fertility rate than they can afford.

What’s the difference? It seems to be education.

http://www.thenational.ae/opinion/editorial/education-is-key-to-controlling-indias-population

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Education is key to controlling India’s population[/font]

November 12, 2014 Updated: November 12, 2014 06:03 PM

[font size=3]…

There is little doubt that India needs to address its population explosion, but it needs to do so using a safer and more practical approach: education. Experience elsewhere shows an inverse correlation between birth rates and women’s level of education. This is demonstrated within India by Kerala – the most literate state – which has managed to keep its population stable at 34 million. By comparison, Bihar has 99 million people and that is rising faster than the national average.

Education promotes a shift from the quantity of children in favour of the quality of life. The impact of improving education will take time to filter through into birth rates but it ought to cause the Indian government to rethink its population-control strategy.[/font][/font]

This is what separates us from other primates; for millennia, we have been accumulating knowledge. That hard won, expanding base of knowledge is what allows us to control populations, and gives us the ability to do what other “monkeys” cannot.