Overpopulation update; Existential threat assessment; etc.

There is some good news today.

The human overpopulation problem: As best I can tell, the top three urgent, existential threats that modern civilization and the human species face are (i) nuclear war, (ii) pollution-driven climate change with species extinctions, and (iii) overpopulation. Overpopulation tends to exacerbate the first two threats. Science Daily reports on encouraging data about a projected global population decline coming faster than I previously believed. SD wrote in 2020:

With widespread, sustained declines in fertility, the world population will likely peak in 2064 at around 9.7 billion, and then decline to about 8.8 billion by 2100 -- about 2 billion lower than some previous estimates, according to a new study.

Improvements in access to modern contraception and the education of girls and women are generating widespread, sustained declines in fertility, and world population will likely peak in 2064 at around 9.7 billion, and then decline to about 8.8 billion by 2100 -- about 2 billion lower than some previous estimates, according to a new study published in The Lancet.

That is solidly good news. 

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American democracy recovered: A few years ago when Trump was in power and dominant in the GOP, experts downgraded the political status of America from a democracy to an anocracy. Anocracy is a state of mixed democratic-autocratic government. After Trump faded, America returned to democracy status. The Center for Systemic Peace writes:

NOTE: The USA dropped below the "democracy threshold" (+6) on the POLITY scale in 2020 and was considered an anocracy (+5) at the end of the year 2020; the USA score for 2021 returned to democracy (+8).

That is solidly good news. It helps put the danger of Trump and the GOP in context.  

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From the doomed efforts files: From one end zone of the playing field, a federal judge has tossed a late 4th quarter hail Mary pass in defense of abortion rights to the other end zone. Yup, it's a 100+ yard pass by a little old lady who happens to be a federal judge. It will be interesting to see the Supreme Court shoot this one down with mucho gusto once the case gets there. CNBC writes: 

Judge suggests abortion might be protected by 

13th Amendment despite Supreme Court ruling

A federal judge [US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly] suggested Monday that the federal right to abortion — which the Supreme Court overturned last year — might still be protected by the Constitution’s 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery.

Kollar-Kotelly in her order wrote that the 13th Amendment “has received substantial attention among scholars and, briefly, in one federal Court of Appeals decision” on the question of whether that section of the constitution could apply to abortion.

A 1990 paper by a Northwestern University School of Law professor found that the 13th Amendment, with its prohibition against involuntary servitude, provides a textual basis for the right to abortion.

“When women are compelled to carry and bear children, they are subjected to ‘involuntary servitude’ in violation” of that amendment,” wrote the paper’s author Andrew Koppelman, which was cited by Kollar-Kotelly in her order.

One can imagine that the forced birthers will attack this defense of abortion rights with great vigor.  Chances of this ploy surviving the radical Christian nationalist Republicans on the Supreme Court are nil.

Why are the odds so low? Because Team Christian nationalism players cheat. They freely commit holding fouls against opposing receivers. There's basically no chance of the pass being caught and the touchdown being scored, even if the ball did travel the required 100+ yard distance. After all, the Supreme Court has exempted itself from the rules and detached itself from inconvenient reason and reality.

Vox comments on the judge's interesting reasoning:

“The ‘issue’ before the Court in Dobbs was not whether any provision of the Constitution provided a right to abortion,” Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, a Clinton appointee, wrote. “Rather, the question before the Court in Dobbs was whether the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution provided such a right.”  

And that leaves open the possibility that the Thirteenth Amendment, which prohibits “slavery” and “involuntary servitude,” does forbid laws banning abortion.

That judge is a sneaky one. 

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Herbal herbs go high tech: Hemp Earth writes on advances in hemp science: 

The World’s First Plane Made From And Powered By HEMP

Hempearth Group is set to build the world’s first plane made from and powered by HEMP. Not only is the plane set to run on HEMPEARTH Hemp Jet A Bio Fuel, but it is set to be built almost entirely from HEMP. Everything from the seats, the wings, the plane walls and even the pillows are set to contain hemp composites which the company has been developing its own over the last couple of years with a Montreal and Australian company. These Hemp aviation composites are unlike anything every been done on the planet, and shall revolutionize the way many things are constructed including, aircraft, boats, cars. 

Why Build A Plane Made From Hemp? 

HEMP/Cannabis, in addition to being one of the world’s healthiest, and most versatile plants on earth, HEMP is pound for pound 10 times stronger than steel. This means that it can withstand a lot more weight before and breaks, and it can bend way further than metal. Great for Aviation. 

Additionally, traditional aerospace materials are heavier than hemp and toxic and not sustainable. Most manufacturers use aluminum and fiberglass to built planes. Hemp is significantly lighter and therefore requires a lot less fuel to get up in the sky. 

Most importantly, hemp is an environmentally friendly material. Hemp requires way less water and land to grow than cotton and even puts nutrients back into the soil through a process called phytoremeditation. 

Compared to steel, which requires mining, or carbon fiber, produced from plastic, hemp has almost no environmental impact.

One can just see it now. The pilot grabs a chunk of the airplane and starts smoking it. Now that's utopia! (Is this for real or is it snarcasm?)