The Galloping Demography

Like a horse that packs up, the world population has been proliferating for centuries (see ) and running to its loss without anyone knowing how to shoot the walrus. Malthus was already expecting exponential growth that, less than two hundred years later, would actually threaten the planet. Naïve, he relied on the common sense of individuals and on a shared desire to limit births. Despite all the contraceptives currently on the market, and despite a slight slowdown in some European countries, the curve continues to fly.
This explosion is generally attributed to the benefits of industrial progress and medicine: reduced infant mortality, longer lifespan, food abundance, and a sense of security due to political progress. However, according to the estimates of the demographers, it is obvious that the exponential begins much earlier, already in ancient times.

It is not easy to understand the real causes of this situation. The number of factors involved, positive or negative, is enormous, theories are far from convergent. How to predict the future now that food resources will be exceeded. Some demographers rely on the so-called “demographic transition” hypothesis, leading better-off populations to less reproduce. No one knows where the truth is.

But that is not the point. It is not now a question of slowing down the natural growth of populations. It is a matter of reducing the occupation of the planet to a reasonable figure, which is far more difficult. We must therefore take into account all factors influencing the birth. However, the frequency of fertilization is directly related to sexual behaviour.

Research on the relationship between sexuality and demography is therefore imperative. Some work has already been undertaken in this direction. They have, however, limited themselves to compiling statistics between the number of coitus and different living conditions, such as marriage, premarital periods, the age of first intercourse, etc.

So far, the essential issue has not been addressed: the relationship between sexual arrangements and fertilization rates. To what extent do sexual behaviour as observed correspond to the natural potential of human beings? To what extent are they distorted by the effect of culture so that they would abnormally increase the frequency of fertilization?

Love impulses are, like any instinct, genetically programmed. Under the influence of education or other psychosocial constraints, they may take more or less deviant forms. It is imperative to examine to what extent our culture and morals (or other cultures and morals) can have an impact on sexuality and increase the frequency of fertilization beyond what nature would like, or beyond what the biosphere can bear.

This question logically precedes all the others. It is paradoxically the only scientific research not yet taken in the collimator. Probably because she’s bothering. To human ecogenetics to fill the gap…

To convince you of the urgency of the situation, take a look at this NATO report, which is, however, optimistic, as the proponents of industrial development are in essence: