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Russia’s population bust

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Interesting article about Russia.

The current Russian depopulation—which began in 1992 and shows no signs of abating—was, like the previous episodes, also precipitated by events of momentous political significance: the final dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of Communist Party rule. But it differs in three important respects. First, it is by far the longest period of population decline in modern Russian history, having persisted for over twice as long as the decline that followed the Bolshevik Revolution, and well over three times as long as the terrifying depopulation Russia experienced during and immediately after World War II.

Second, unlike all the previous depopulations in Russia, this one has been taking place under what are, within the Russian context, basically orderly social and political circumstances. …

And finally, whereas Russia’s previous depopulations resulted from wild and terrible social paroxysms, they were also clearly temporary in nature. The current crisis, on the other hand, is proceeding gradually and routinely, and thus it is impossible to predict when, or whether, it will finally come to an end.

The author never mentions Russia’s astoundingly high abortion rates, which would certainly be part of the depopulation picture.

I might think, however, that high abortion rates are an effect of a society gone off the rails–not a cause. Happy cultures filled with hope, I’d imagine, don’t lead to high abortion rates… (I’m just thinking aloud here. Or rather, quite silently, as I type.)

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Brigitte concurs (also silently, as I type): Cultures and societies that are characterized by a lack of hope aren’t doing well, demographically speaking. Sterile hedonism isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Don’t drink the water

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We’ve visited this issue before. Seems new concerns about birth control pill hormones leaking into the water supply have again arisen:

Experts believe the hormone could be getting into drinking water and affecting men’s sperm counts. They say sewage treatment does not remove the chemical entirely from drinking supplies, although the water industry insists there is no evidence of a risk to health….

One study by the Medical Research Council found that Scottish men born since 1970 are 25 per cent less fertile than those born 20 years earlier – and that fertility is continuing to drop by two per cent a year.

Of course, other chemicals may be responsible, for we are increasingly discovering that we are surrounded by ‘gender-bending’ substances.

Many pesticides and plastics, for example, contain chemicals that disrupt the hormone system. (emphasis mine)

And it seems going ahead with broad water filtration programs is out of the question since the process of filtering these chemicals out of the water contributes to global warming. (Good grief!) So buy your water today… in glass bottles, I guess.

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Andrea adds: All these environmental crises, economic crises, everything is a CRISIS! The average guy is going to reach for something in a bottle and it won’t be water. I think I need a drink too.

More evidence that sex and pregnancy are indeed related

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This study from the Guttmacher, says:  

Half of respondents had experienced at least one unintended pregnancy. Respondents described three categories of pleasure related to pregnancy ambivalence: active eroticization of risk, in which pregnancy fantasies heightened the charge of the sexual encounter; passive romanticization of pregnancy, in which people neither actively sought nor prevented conception; and an escapist pleasure in imagining that a pregnancy would sweep one away from hardship. All three categories were associated with misuse or nonuse of coitus-dependent methods.

Now I have not read the Guttmacher study in full. But my translation on the “scientificese” above is this: Pregnancy is linked–strongly–to sex and sometimes women get pregnant the result of having sex. Furthermore, oftentimes unintended pregnancies are not unintended at all.

You know, I don’t like the idea that everything we do, including pregnancy, ought to be fully and completely planned. All it nurtures is a sense of failure if you can’t get pregnant the very moment you so desire, and a sense of failure if you get pregnant when you did not so desire. (If life is aaaaaalllll about planning, I might add that I’m way off track as per the official Andrea Mrozek 1995 high school graduation power point. See graph four, slide 15 for more information…)

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