December Archive

Will the one-child policy wreck China’s economy?

Michael Cook | 14 December 2009

China’s rapid economic development and America’s evident vulnerabilty after the Global Financial Crisis could make the Chinese a bit smug. But as leading demographer Nicholas Eberstadt points out in a frightening article in the Far Eastern Economic Review, China faces gigantic economic problems as the legacy of its one-child policy.

An “odious, zombie-like Malthusian” organisation has a plan to save the world

Michael Cook | 10 December 2009

Not even the journalists reporting from the Copenhagen summit on climate change understand all the complex economic and technological strategies for reducing the world's carbon footprint and averting catastrophic global warming -- let alone the rest of us. There's cap and trade, emissions trading schemes, carbon taxes, discount rates and a phonebook of acronyms. But there is one equation which could be a very easy sell to save the world: fewer people = fewer carbon footprints.

MercatorNet exclusive—poetry by Al Gore

Michael Cook | 09 December 2009

Al Gore’s latest book has just hit the bookshops. Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis is a lavishly illustrated handbook for climate-change activism -- with his first public poetry. It's awful.

Will Ethiopia become a Muslim-majority nation?

Michael Cook | 07 December 2009

As Army shrinks, South Korea to recruit women soldiers

Michael Cook | 04 December 2009

From 2011 South Korea may start recruiting women volunteers for its Army to make up for its growing shortage of young men.

Japan’s new government seeks to boost birth rate

Michael Cook | 03 December 2009

Japan's new government, led by the Democratic Party of Japan, seems to be taking its population problem seriously. The world's number two economy is set to shrink from about 127 million to 95 million by 2050. This means that the number of workers available to support  retirees will fall from 3 to 1.5. Because Japanese are notoriously hostile towards increased immigration, the government's options are limited. It is racking its brains for schemes to increase the birth rate. Here are some mentioned in an article by AFP:

South Korea reluctantly becoming more diverse

Michael Cook | 03 December 2009

With the world's second-lowest birth rate and a gender imbalance to boot because of sex-selective abortions, South Korean men are going overseas to find brides. The growing number of mixed marriages is creating worrying social problems for the goverrnment. According to the New York Times, hundreds of thousands of women have migrated in recent years, mostly to marry men in rural areas. Most of them come from China, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.