Way back in grad school, I met a brilliant woman doing a Ph.D in development economics at Stanford. Her thesis was exploring family size in West Africa. Interdisciplinary meetings were telling her she was far too reductionist, she was failing to understand the role of culture, etc. etc.
After two years of field research and data collection, she had developed a remarkably effective predictive model for understanding rural family size. With all of the groups she had studied allocating the gathering of fuel/firewood and collection of water to the women and children of the household, her model used distance to fuel and water as the primary predictors of family size. The only other significant variable was education levels for women (male education did not have an observable effect). Variables for cultures which nominally stated that men controlled reproductive decisions were not significant.
Her policy recommendations for reducing family size were rural electrification, community water pumping, and compulsory education for girls.
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As usual you donāt have a respectable response to the actual - you know - argument.
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Well, not quite.
The issue is there is no mechanism for reducing population growth that isnāt already happening (unless you are advocating forcing down births rates with particularly authoritarian birth control measures).
Birth rates are falling all over the world, even across Africa (Fertility rate in Nairobi is about 2.7). To the extent that in many parts of the world there are now genuine concerns that there arenāt enough babies being born to keep populations stable. Weāre very unlikely to ever hit 10bn global population.
Unfortunately there is a racist undertone to a lot of population control arguments. Iām not suggesting you are racist (which might have prompted the defensiveness of your posts) but the roots of a lot of our ideas are most definitely dodgy.
https://www.sierraclub.org/washington/blog/2020/01/overpopulation-myth-and-its-dangerous-connotations
https://www.1millionwomen.com.au/blog/heres-why-overpopulation-argument-more-dangerous-you-think/
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As usual? How would you know? Thatās your fifth post across the whole forum. All of them today.
Who were you before you regenerated?
No, a former member of this forum before it turned to shit. I only visited for info on cityās case and read the politics thread out of curiosity. For the Planetās sake, Iām a big believer in reducing population everywhere. Sir David Attenborough shares this view and when you look at the state of politics, he is someone genuine, with integrity. Not a racist.
Sir David Attenborough, as wonderful as he is across many spheres, is 98 years old, and like many people of advancing years undoubtedly has the odd dodgy opinion.
Iām sure his patronage of Population Matters is from a genuinely good place.
And youngsters obviously donāt hold any dodgy opinions at all.
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Iām sure they do, but itās more often than not your octogenarian father in law who gets tipsy on Christmas Day and says something racist. 
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You visit a Liverpool forum only for news on man city and politics?
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Well tbf there isnāt going to be any transfer news, is there?
Im off, happy voting. Weāre all doomed! City might be relegated soon though, so silver linings.
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Really idiotic thing to do on his part, and Starmer is right to suspend him.
However, it is worth noting that the circumstances of this are a little different.
There is no suggestion that he used advance knowledge of the election date to put the bet on. He bet on the Tory to win thinking he had no chance (suggesting he was going to donate the winnings to charity, which might be bullshit)
Sort of like a compo bet. Not the same category at all.
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Hang on, hang on. You cant just blurt that out across the Internet like that.
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They do, but its always someone elses fault
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Youāre getting them confused with the Tories.
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Mad Nads has signed on for Ch4ās election night coverage.
Drink every time she mentions Bozoā¦
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:0)
Four arrested as climate protestors ātake a dumpā in lake at Rishi Sunakās home
āAs a thankyou and a parting gift to Rishi Sunak and the Tories for the last 14 years of service, a Youth Demand supporter has āsunk the Bismarckā in Rishi Sunakās lake,ā the organisation said.
The scene took place at Rishi Sunakās North Yorkshire mansion. In a press release, the body said āthe young man 'murdered a brown snakeā in the multi-millionairesā lake, whilst wearing a shirt emblazoned with āEat S**t Rishiā.ā
Before his stunt in the lake, Oliver said: āWe have so much to thank the Tories for: from crumbling schools, shit in the rivers and a collapsing NHS; to creating a nation with more food banks than McDonalds and 4.3 million UK children living in poverty.
"From allowing their mates to get filthy rich from selling weapons to battle-test on toddlers in Gaza, or by drilling for more oil as the world burns ā itās quite a legacy!ā
He continued: "Yet this shit-show is set to continue with yet another party led by a pathological liar who will be taking office next. Both Labour and the Tories are content to keep s****g on Gaza, and on every future generation, by continuing weapons trading with Israel and by not revoking all oil and gas licences granted since 2021. The two party system is just two cheeks of the same arse. We deserve better!"
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Fuck. I was planning on watching Channel 4; not so sure now.
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Exactly my thoughtsā¦
Laura K or Mad Nadsā¦fucken hellā¦
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At first glance, I thought that said Tom Brady. Would still be preferable to Kuenssberg and Dorries.
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