FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
New Indicators in Sharp Decline in Trans-Atlantic Potential Relative Population-Density
Aug. 24, 2018 (EIRNS)—Two new demographic studies of 18 developed Western nations show that life expectancy declined in 12 of those countries in 2015, according to an Aug. 22 report in Reuters. “This hasn’t occurred in decades, and the size of these most recent declines were larger than prior declines,” said study co-author Jessica Ho of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. The studies were published in The BMJ (formerly British Medical Journal), described as one of the world’s oldest medical journals published by the British Medical Association.
EIR has reported on previous studies pointing to the ongoing demographic collapse in the United States. In the new studies, the trend is shown to apply across the board in the trans-Atlantic sector.
“This is the first time in recent decades that so many high-income countries simultaneously experienced declines in life expectancy for both men and women,”
Reuters wrote.
“Most of these countries reversed their life-expectancy decline in the 2015-2016 period, but in the U.S. and the U.K., the declines continued, the [studies’] authors note.”
Reuters pointed to the opioid crisis and drug overdose deaths as a leading culprit. But they also quote lead study author Dr. Steven H. Woolf of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond saying:
“A leading cause is fatal drug overdoses—fueled by the opioid epidemic—but we make a mistake if we focus only on the drug problem, which is just the tip of the iceberg. Deaths from alcoholism and suicides have also increased, what some call deaths of despair.”
Woolf further commented that there are rising midlife death rates from dozens of diseases of the heart, lungs, digestive systems and other organs. It even found rising death rates during pregnancy and early childhood, Woolf said. “Something far-reaching is affecting the health of Americans in the prime of their lives,” Woolf said.
That “something” is caused by what Lyndon LaRouche scientifically defined as allowing a society’s potential relative population-density to drop below its actual population. Willy-nilly, the result of that will be some combination of demographic collapse, life expectancy reduction, waves of forced migration, wars, drug and other epidemics, soaring poverty, and cultural decay.
