What is the world coming to?

Two of our stories this week examine the deep anxiety some people have about the way the world is going. Are they right?

John Marsden, the educator and author, is not overly concerned about the long-term impact of students being forced into remote learning due to lockdowns. He believes our children have bigger concerns. “Far greater is their anxiety about the world and the environment,” he tells journalist Ricky French. “I think that’s a much bigger and deeper and longer lasting fear.”

Coincidentally, this is the theme in another story this week on the rise of young childless men choosing to be sterilised. While the reasons vary, “I just don’t want to bring children into a world like this” is a phrase one doctor is hearing more and more. Figures confirm that the rate of vasectomies in men under the age of 34 is growing steeply (sterilisation figures for young women are much lower) and it comes as demographers keep a keen eye on our falling fertility rate, which is already below the number considered necessary for the population to replace itself.