Sunday, July 31, 2011

Intelligence has remained constant

This is today's Brewster Rockit.

The current AAAS Science magazine has an issue on population, saying:
Interviewer - Stewart Wills
Well, let’s explore some of those themes in a bit more detail starting with growing population. Population obviously is expanding given the numbers that you said, but one of the things you noted in your review – and I like the way you put this – is that the demographic center of gravity is shifting from the developed to the developing world. Could you talk a bit more about that?

Interviewee - David Bloom
Sure. The U.N. classifies certain regions as less developed. And, in 1950, those regions encompassed 68% of the world’s population. Today, those regions represent 82% of the world population, and that share is going to continue to rise, because virtually all of the population growth that is projected for the next four decades is going to take place in the less developed regions of the world. And I would add here, Stewart, that that is a huge concern because developing countries tend to be the politically, the socially, the economically, and the ecologically most fragile countries in the world. ... And, as a side note here, India will overtake China as the most populous country on the planet. That crossover is projected for the year 2027, so in other words, less than two decades away.
The interviewer likes the way he puts this because he avoids saying what the comic strip says, and does not explain what a disaster this Third World population growth is. He says that the USA is unusual because it is gaining population in the developed world, but he does not explain that the gains are largely from legal and illegal Third World immigration.

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