Our exploding population is the gravest threat Britain faces today

For most of my professional life, I have derided the population alarmists. Those who spent the past few decades warning that there were far too many people in Britain and the wider world had always struck me as shrill, their arguments flawed at best and downright racist at worst.

Back in the Seventies, it was received wisdom that, by the early 21st century, the West would be groaning under the weight of its billions, with famine stalking the land and supermarket shelves empty.

This didn’t happen. Instead we face an obesity epidemic, and, in the rich world, ageing populations which – we are told – have to be shored up by mass immigration.

So why have I changed my mind? Why do I now agree that excessive human population is not one of Britain’s biggest problems but, arguably, the greatest single threat to health, wealth and well-being we see in the world today?

First, let me be clear: this is about cold, brute numbers and not at all about race, culture, ethnicity nor any of the other inflammatory issues which have clouded the great population debate.

The problems of overpopulation are caused by too many people – full stop. Not by too many Ghanaians or Kenyans, not too many Poles or gypsies, not too many of any other particular kind of people – just too many people of all colours, creeds and cultures.

It is now hard to think of a single major problem we face, here in Britain or elsewhere, which would not be solved, or at least ameliorated, by having fewer people.

Mail On Sunday