Daily Episode 213 - The coming demographics collapse
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Why does the host ask listeners to join Patreon at the start of the episode?
Please join us on Patreon. We would love to see you there.
There's a link, as always, in the description.
Hello and happy Tuesday. I hope you enjoyed yesterday's episode, which was the interview with Richard Heimberg. It was obviously quite a bit longer than the normal episode that we are doing on a day-to-day basis these days. If you're relatively new to the podcast, I hope that it highlights a little bit about what we used to do here. The first hundred and, what was it, 60 episodes or so of the podcast, basically the first three years of recording, were more lengthy episodes, typically between 40 minutes and an hour. They were conversations that Kellen, my co-host at the time, and myself would have about collapse topics. And we would take on individual topics during that week. We would do quite heavy research on it and introduce how it relates to collapse, why it's a problem.
And this, of course, on top of those first 8 to 12 episodes, which really lay the foundation for why societal collapse is inevitable. Anyway, that's just to say there's tons of content. Yes, the daily stuff right now is fun and I enjoy doing it and it's a great way to look at what's going on in the news, what's going on in research, in the, you know, right now day-to-day aspects of collapse. Those old episodes are practically evergreen, right? Yes, maybe some of the numbers have changed with new research. When we started the podcast, we might have been at something like 1.2 degrees above the baseline and now we're 1.45 degrees above the baseline, whatever. But the content there is rich and is valuable.
And I recommend going back and listening to it if you haven't. And maybe even if you have for a refresher. Well, today's episode is on a topic that we haven't touched on in a good while. And I actually think it's kind of an understated aspect of collapse. And it's one more very interesting piece of pressure that's going to be put on us in the coming years that we don't really right now have a way to solve it. And that is around demographic changes that are happening throughout the world. You know, we talk about paradoxes or catch-22s, the Faustian bargains, right, that we have got ourselves into in society, and they abound in collapse. Kind of a damned if you do, damned if you don't sort of thing, right?
One example would be when it comes to sulfate pollution in the atmosphere, right? These aerosols act as a mask that can actually reflect away sunlight and heat.
What is the demographic catch‑22 that creates a paradox for future collapse?
That has a bit of a cooling effect, right? While at the same time, the emissions that bring those sulfates into the atmosphere are having a worse effect in that they are releasing a lot of carbon dioxide and all of that. So on the one hand, carbon dioxide lasts in the atmosphere for a very long time, where the sulfates may only be a couple of years. So if we reduce dramatically and quickly the amount of pollution that we're emitting, it will very quickly remove those sulfates, which has a heating effect on our planet. But the carbon dioxide that we emitted stays there and also continues heating the planet. Anyway, that's just a catch-22. You can stop polluting, but it's actually going to cause a temporary increase in temperature, and the benefits of that don't come a long time down the road.
Demographics is another one of these types of issues. We're going to be running into a bit of a population problem, but as we know, the population is already a problem. It's a problem now because it's too high. The amount of consumption required to keep high qualities of life for this many people is what's polluting the earth in the first place. It's causing the death and destruction of ecosystems, biodiversity, it's putting greenhouse gases, anyway, etc., etc., It's at least one part of the big puzzle for preventing biosphere collapse. On the other hand, we have a demographic shift, which is basically meaning that we have, we're on the path to, less humans. Most of the world is not reaching replacement rates for births.
Well, this also causes another problem, or many other problems.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why does the host ask listeners to join Patreon at the start of the episode?
0:00–2:45
2
What is the demographic catch‑22 that creates a paradox for future collapse?
2:45–5:04
3
How do sulfate aerosols illustrate a climate‑policy catch‑22?
5:04–7:30
4
Why is a shrinking global population a problem for economies and the biosphere?
7:30–9:58
5
How does international migration factor into the aging‑population challenge?
9:58–12:48
6
What are the arguments for raising the retirement age and why are they controversial?
12:48–14:45
7
How could Social Security and pension systems collapse under demographic pressure?
14:45–18:41
8
What personal finance steps does the host recommend for a looming retirement‑crisis?
18:41–20:27