AIBU The global fertility crisis is the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced?

[plantsdieinmyhouse]

We’re in a ‘global fertility crisis’.

I’m astounded that global (even UK/European) fertility decline to below the replacement rate of 2.1 (thought to have happened now) isn’t in the forefront of most people’s radar. There are barely even any politicians acknowledging it let alone devising policies to tackle it.

Thee are even people who still think we’re in the 70s/80s/90s and ‘overpopulation’ is still an issue.

Once everyone who’s alone now is dead the human race will be in terminal decline.

Nothing else matters if there’s none of us left!

Even on a personal level a large proportion of women don’t have the number of DCs they expect to.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/43a9bd63-25c9-4941-bc99-fc9f7e42c12a?shareToken=29bf27cb9dafe9af7a006bc25355e411

Without humans so many animals and plants will also go extinct.

all pets, cats, dogs,
all farm animals, no fields of cows, sheep, pigs
horses
city wildlife- pigeons, seagulls, rats, foxes,
garden flowers- roses etc
all the man made forests & what lives in them

there would be no man made protection from flooding, natural disasters

diseases would spread amongst existing animals without conservation, vets, burials

Human beings have done so much good. I can’t believe so many would throw away that potential.

I think there should be better opportunity for people to earn more, learn more and progress their career in care should they wish to do so - not compulsory, but optional. The lack of those opportunities might be putting people off choosing care as a career.

Pragmatism or utilitarianism but basically distilled to mean the greatest benefit for the most people is the right, or correct or moral choice.

We have reached peak individualism where every individual is valued equally. Yet, some individuals cost much more and contribute far less and at some point "societies" and "communities" have to choose who and what to maintain when resources are scarce. During feast periods, everyone is welcome but in a famine, if you don't earn your crust and the people who love you don't have a surplus to share, then "passengers" are likely to get short shrift.

Why would they all go extinct? I'm pretty sure rats and foxes certainly wouldn't for a start! What about all the species humans have already made extinct? I'm sure they'd cope without us fine, you really give humans a lot of undeserved credit.

But what do you mean by 'progression'? Working in the office? That would give you less carers doing the manual part of the job.

I think the only way through the next few decades to hundred years or so is to reverse the increase.

Not wipe people out but get back down to a freer level of population. I think humans have more chance of success if they are not so jammed in and fighting over scarcer resources.

By progression I mean the opportunity to earn more, learn more, take on more responsibility, be promoted and perhaps if that means working in the office, perhaps not. People who want that might be put off now by the lack of opportunity. If it were available more people might go into caring so there could be more people doing the manual part of the job as there wouldn't be such a staff shortage.

@plantsdieinmyhouseyou think 'man made forests' are good?

Really?

You know why people have to attempt to 'make" forests' right?

It wasn’t a comment on their worth but a statement that without us they wouldn’t exist.

promoted to what? obviously we should earn more as the job we do is in some cases the difference between life and death. it can be crappy and demeaning sometimes. government talks about us as if anyone could do the job and people talk flippantly about getting unemployed to do care work when that would be a catastrophe.

Also 'more to learn'? There is only so much you can learn. The main learning is when you work with someone as they are the person you learn from. Everyone has their own preferences, conditions, how they like their house kept, religious beliefs etc. It is not something you can learn in a classroom with training and anyone who thinks they know how care works and can't learn any more isn't doing it properly.

I honestly think we're agreeing @chaosmaker . Experience and skill should be rewarded whether that's promotion or pay grade. This will reward the skill and dedication of care workers and show that it requires talented, special folk to do it. At the moment the flippant 'anyone can do it' talk puts off people who think they'll be badly paid and unrecognised. The idea would be to attract the right kind of dedicated people who will have a career in care rather than push people into roles for which they're not suited and who will not stay and do a good job.

https://x.com/morebirths/status/1939153302257569849?s=46

This is a very interesting article but it does ignore the elephant in the room - human populations can't expand indefinitely because there is a ceiling on the earth's resources and arguably we are at that point now through massive, irreversible habitat & biodiversity destruction/loss.

I would like to see more suggestions on how population decline can be actively managed whilst preserving advanced human culture, technology and progress. Is this possible? We do have more knowledge and resources at our fingertips to address this problem than did the ancient Greeks or Romans

@AloeVeraAloeFred lot of people suggesting switching to a degrowth economic model.

No one’s arguing for more growth.
what we want is population maintenance & managed reduction.
what’s happening is sharp and sudden and destructive.

Then future generations will be a scavenge society where nothing works any more.
Maybe the Vogons will blow up the Earth to make way for a galactic super highway?