Tag: China

‘Population Collapse’ is now no Greek!

Any nation with a birth rate below replacement will eventually cease to exist. – tweets Elon Musk.

Reports coming in saying Greece is facing a population decline, possibly becoming the first country to experience “population collapse.” 

What’s population collapse?

Wikipedia says population decline, also known as depopulation, is a reduction in the human population size. It’s an alarming trend.

Throughout history, Earth’s total human population has continued to grow. The growth rate of the population accelerated to a peak of 2.1% annually during the 1962–1968 period, but since then, due to the worldwide collapse of the total fertility rate, it has slowed to 0.9% as of 2023.

Greece’s dwindling population sparked discussions on social media, with billionaire Elon Musk expressing worry. Greece lately is in the news for all wrong reasons. 

Increased mortality rates among young, healthy individuals due to conditions like heart failure, stroke, blood clots, and cancer, especially after COVID-19, are major cause of worry in the nation now.

Prime Minister of Greece, Mr. Kyriakos Mitsotakis has described the situation as a “ticking time bomb” and a “national threat.”

According to The Hellenic Statistical Authority (2015), the unemployment rates in Greece rocketed from 7.8% in 2008 to 24.9% in 2015. 

The proportion of the population that is at risk of poverty in the country rose from 28.1% in 2008 to 36% in 2014 and 35.7% in 2015.

The reports say Greece’s population is projected to decrease by over a million by 2050. 

The country recorded just one birth per two deaths in 2022, PM Mr. Mitsotskis has stated. (So sad!)

“This is one of the most serious problems we face not only in Greece but in the EU as a whole,” Finance Minister Kostis Hatzidakis told news agency Reuters.

The demographic problem is due to lower birth rates, causing a negative natural population change, coupled with elevated migration.

Greece is not just alone. 

Japan is experiencing a similar trend. The country’s population is currently (2022–2026) declining at the rate of 0.5% per year.

China, whose population has peaked and is currently (2022 – 2026) declining at the rate of about 0.04%.

By 2050, Europe’s population is projected to be declining at the rate of 0.3% per year.

The UN Population Division data says that it took the world 12.5 years to go from 7 billion to 8 billion people, but it will take 14.1 years to go from 8 billion to 9 billion. It’s projected to take another 16.4 years to go from 9 billion to 10 billion.

The long-term projections give a dismal figure though. The growth rate of the human population of this planet will continue to slow and before the end of the 21st century, it will reach zero.

You know now why ‘Population Collapse’ should sound no Greek to the economists of the world.

 

Have snakes come as saviours to save the planet, Earth?

An Indian food delivery company was in the news recently. For all the wrongful reasons. 

They planned to introduce a ‘pure vegetarian fleet’ to supply food to vegetarian customers in India.

The company CEO Deepinder Goyal announced that the ‘Pure Veg Fleet’ will wear green uniform instead of the usual red while delivering.

People in general were outraged when he said they would not deliver food from any restaurants that serve eggs, fish, chicken or any sort of meat.

The social media soon joined in the fray. They were up in arms, calling the new fleet discriminatory.

The issue died only when the CEO of the company apologized and retracted the statement. 

Mr. Goyal said on X (formerly Twitter) that his company rider’s physical safety was of paramount importance. He further said the new (mis) adventure might put his customers into trouble with their homeowners.

Sheikh Salauddin, president of the Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers union, criticized Goyal’s announcement by saying that he was going to categorize delivery partners on the lines of caste, community and religion.

Well, that asks a bigger question: Is India actually a majority vegetarian nation?

They have a very strange order among them. They eat no flesh, but live with roots and rice and milk. – wrote Ralph Fitch, an English traveller to India in the year 1580.

The ancient Vedas, Dharmashastras, Manusmiriti, Puranas and Thirukural (the famous Tamil couplet) have mentioned more about the benefits of being vegetarian than meat-eating.

But India, as the world knows, has historically, been a meat-eating nation with widespread forests, animals, fish and birds. Archaeological finds from the Harappan civilisation show people consumed meat.

Later, as Jainism and Buddhism spread, vegetarianism became more common. And Hindus have embraced vegetarianism.

Now, a third of India eat vegetarian food. But, strangely, vegetarians among the Hindus mostly belong to the upper-caste.

The controversies don’t end so soon.

The same food delivery company kicked up a row in West Bengal as Muslim delivery agents of the company struck work by refusing to deliver pork items to customers. The Hindu delivery agents soon followed suit. They opposed delivery of beef to customers.

As this is dragging on forever, people in South East Asia and China have shown a liking for a new recipe. 

Technology Networks have recently published a news item people might find scary. Caution!

(Trigger Warning: Readers are advised caution as the content might sound offensive to some).

Farmed pythons may offer a sustainable and efficient new form of livestock to boost food security, according to new research from Macquarie University.

Snake meat is white and very high in protein, says Dr Daniel Natusch, who led the study done by two South-East Asian commercial python farms.

Dr. Natusch is an Honorary Research Fellow from the School of Natural Sciences attached to Macquarie University.

The multi-institutional research team included scientists from Macquarie University, the UK’s University of Oxford, the University of Adelaide, Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand and the Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology in Hanoi.

They found pythons convert feed into weight gain (remarkably) more efficiently compared to conventional livestock such as chickens and cattle.

“Our study suggests python farming complementing existing livestock systems may offer a flexible and efficient response to global food insecurity”, the university concludes.

Though it will take a long time for the Western world (and the palates in India) to culturally adapt to the thought of eating snakes, it’s important to consider an alternative protein source to mitigate global food insecurity.

Have snakes come as saviours to serve the cause? – is the most pertinent question now.