Over the last two weeks, we've been talking a lot about
climate change – i.e., President Trump pulling out of the Paris Accords.
We're
even hearing that President Macron is going
to lead the way and carry the accords forward. I don't know whether
Mr. Macron will be successful. Time will tell, but huge
youth unemployment in France and divisions over reforming
an overtaxed economy may interfere with his plans.
We've
also heard about Europe's childless leaders, or the amazing story of a
continent where no one has children. It started with a post from the
middle of May titled "Emmanuel
Macron and the barren elite of a changing continent."
Who
would have believed this 25 years ago?
Let
me be clear and say some people choose not to have children, and others can't.
I understand that. However, I am talking about a continental case
of demographic suicide. Sooner or later, babies become young men and
women and carry the culture forward. You can't have a future if you are
not reproducing.
As a
Catholic, I enjoy reading George Weigel. His writings about Pope John
Paul II were great. His notes
about Europe today and the lack of babies should be a wakeup call for
a continent consumed with climate change:
(1)
Europe is committing demographic suicide, systematically depopulating itself in
what British historian Niall Ferguson has called "the greatest sustained
reduction in European population since the Black Death in the fourteenth
century."
(2)
This unwillingness to create the future in the most elemental sense, by
creating new generations, is at the root of many of Europe's problems,
including its difficulties assimilating immigrants and its fiscal distress.
(3)
When an entire continent – healthier, wealthier, and more secure than ever
before – deliberately chooses sterility, the most basic cause for that must lie
in the realm of the human spirit, in a certain souring about the very mystery
of being.
The
response to this analysis that has stuck in my mind ever since came from an
Italian Euro-parliamentarian, who said, in so many words, "Look, we know
we're finished. We're trying to arrange things so that we can die comfortably
in our beds. Don't you Yanks come over here and start stirring things up."
As
for me, I am not planning to stir anything up or tell the Europeans to change
their ways. I just want to politely remind Europeans that there won't be
enough of them around to see if the temperatures went up or didn't.
We
teach our children to remember past generations, such as the soldiers who
fought and died to preserve our freedoms and way of life. This is what
future generations do. They look back and find role models in the great
sacrifice of a soldier at D-Day or patriot in the Revolutionary War. We
name our schools, streets, and parks after them.
What
a terrible shame to invest so much on "climate change" and then not
have the children to remember your sacrifice. At today's pace, there
won't be Europeans around to gather at a future "Macron Park" to
remember how President Macron stood up to President Trump over climate change
in 2017.
P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk), (YouTube)
and follow me on Twitter.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/07/climate_change_will_there_be_any_europeans_around_to_check_the_predictions.html
