A few weeks ago, I read an article by economist Tyler Cowen entitled "Want to Help Fight Climate Change? Have More Children." Apparently Mike Lee read the same article because after he stopped talking about tauntauns and seahorses in his speech about the Green New Deal he alluded to it.
I've been thinking about it ever since, trying to decide how I feel about it. I think a lot comes down to the same idea I talked about last week. What do our hearts treasure? What do we value?
Let's talk about Utah County for a minute. Utah County has a pretty high birth rate, and recent innovations show evidence for that. We went down there during Jim's spring break because there seemed like lots of fun things for kids to do. There are the museums at Thanksgiving Point. There's the Neighborhood Art Center in the mall. There's even a kids' section at the Harold B. Lee library. If we'd gone in the summer we could have gone to some epic playgrounds and splash pads. When there is a population to support these kinds of things, they will develop. (When there's not, well, we still love you lots, Cache Valley.)
What else does Utah County have? Ice cream. Cupcakes. Crepes. Cookies. Dirty sodas. When most of the population doesn't drink coffee or alcohol different demands develop. Big time.
So I definitely believe the argument that denser populations lead to more innovations. What I doubt is that it's inevitable for those innovations to all be good. I mean, nothing against dessert places, but they're not really helping with carbon emissions as far as I can tell. Furthermore, sometimes higher populations just mean more illegal drugs, conspiracy theories, and crime. Humans don't always trend toward progress, unfortunately.
What seems to matter more than the size of the population is the values of the population. If they don't want a polluted place to live, then they will speak up and try to fix it. If they want cleaner energy they'll buy it. But if they don't care, then nothing will change, more kids or no.
So it's not sufficient to push problems onto the next generation. Instead we need to teach the next generation to care about the environment, to get excited about solving problems that we're already making headway on. How we do that might differ from family to family, but I think it's a conversation that should happen.
And it should probably not happen in rap form. You'll see why in a few lines.
(I still don't know how or why this happened. I was probably finding ways to put off folding laundry. Also, I looked it up and Malthusian is pronounced Mal-thooz-ee-un not Malthu-ZHen but I wish it were pronounced as the latter because it's a lot easier to find relevant rhymes [like fusion]. Oh well.)
If you're lukewarm like a tauntaun about making mini-me's,
Fretting 'bout the exhalations they'll be adding to the breeze
Let your worries give you energy
About the power of synergy
(extensive beat boxing)
When you have people knocking knees
They'll want to find a good solution
To the body heat around them
And the sources of pollution
If you want those solar panels to have high enough demand
Spend your child-bearing years a bit outnumbered and outmanned
Have those kids and help them innovate
Teach them plants and bikes are great
They'll design something profound
To get that carbon in the ground!
Don't be Thanos all Malthusian
It's living life all floozyin'
That makes us all enthusin
'Bout the future being halcyon
Ahem. Both the best and worst rap I've ever written. But mostly the worst. Anyway, what will you do today to make the Earth a better place?
I've been thinking about it ever since, trying to decide how I feel about it. I think a lot comes down to the same idea I talked about last week. What do our hearts treasure? What do we value?
Let's talk about Utah County for a minute. Utah County has a pretty high birth rate, and recent innovations show evidence for that. We went down there during Jim's spring break because there seemed like lots of fun things for kids to do. There are the museums at Thanksgiving Point. There's the Neighborhood Art Center in the mall. There's even a kids' section at the Harold B. Lee library. If we'd gone in the summer we could have gone to some epic playgrounds and splash pads. When there is a population to support these kinds of things, they will develop. (When there's not, well, we still love you lots, Cache Valley.)
What else does Utah County have? Ice cream. Cupcakes. Crepes. Cookies. Dirty sodas. When most of the population doesn't drink coffee or alcohol different demands develop. Big time.
So I definitely believe the argument that denser populations lead to more innovations. What I doubt is that it's inevitable for those innovations to all be good. I mean, nothing against dessert places, but they're not really helping with carbon emissions as far as I can tell. Furthermore, sometimes higher populations just mean more illegal drugs, conspiracy theories, and crime. Humans don't always trend toward progress, unfortunately.
What seems to matter more than the size of the population is the values of the population. If they don't want a polluted place to live, then they will speak up and try to fix it. If they want cleaner energy they'll buy it. But if they don't care, then nothing will change, more kids or no.
So it's not sufficient to push problems onto the next generation. Instead we need to teach the next generation to care about the environment, to get excited about solving problems that we're already making headway on. How we do that might differ from family to family, but I think it's a conversation that should happen.
And it should probably not happen in rap form. You'll see why in a few lines.
(I still don't know how or why this happened. I was probably finding ways to put off folding laundry. Also, I looked it up and Malthusian is pronounced Mal-thooz-ee-un not Malthu-ZHen but I wish it were pronounced as the latter because it's a lot easier to find relevant rhymes [like fusion]. Oh well.)
If you're lukewarm like a tauntaun about making mini-me's,
Fretting 'bout the exhalations they'll be adding to the breeze
Let your worries give you energy
About the power of synergy
(extensive beat boxing)
When you have people knocking knees
They'll want to find a good solution
To the body heat around them
And the sources of pollution
If you want those solar panels to have high enough demand
Spend your child-bearing years a bit outnumbered and outmanned
Have those kids and help them innovate
Teach them plants and bikes are great
They'll design something profound
To get that carbon in the ground!
Don't be Thanos all Malthusian
It's living life all floozyin'
That makes us all enthusin
'Bout the future being halcyon
Ahem. Both the best and worst rap I've ever written. But mostly the worst. Anyway, what will you do today to make the Earth a better place?
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