This planet ain’t big enough for the 6,500,000,000

What do the following have in common: the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere, Earth’s average temperature and the size of the human population? Answer: each was, for a long period of Earth’s history, held in a state of equilibrium. Whether it’s the burning of fossil fuels versus the rate at which plants absorb carbon, or the heat absorbed from sunshine versus the heat reflected back into space, or global birth rates versus death rates – each is governed by the difference between an inflow and an outflow, and even small imbalances can have large effects. At present, all of these three are out of balance as a result of human actions. And each of these imbalances is creating a major problem.
Even at current levels, the World Health Organisation reports that more than three billion people are malnourished. And although food availability continues to grow, per capita grain availability has been declining since the Eighties. Technology may continue to push back the limits, but 50 per cent of plants and animals are already harvested for our use, creating a huge impact on our partner species and the world’s ecosystems. And it is the airborne waste from our energy production that is driving climate change.

Yet, even at a geo-political level, population control is rarely discussed. Today, however, marks the publication of a new report on population by the United Nations Environment Programme. Perhaps this could be the spur we need.

If debate is started, some will say that we need to stop the world’s population booming, and to do so most urgently where the birth rates are highest – the developing world. Others may argue that it is in the developed world, where the impact of individuals is highest, that we should concentrate efforts. A third view is to ignore population and to focus on human consumption.

Programmes that seek actively to reduce birth rates find that three conditions must be met. First, birth control must be within the scope of conscious choice. Second, there must be real advantages to having a smaller family – if no provision is made for peoples’ old age, the incentive is to have more children. Third, the means of control must be available – but also to be socially acceptable, and combined with education and emancipation of girls and women.

The human multitude has become a force at the planetary scale. Collectively, our exploitation of the world’s resources has already reached a level that, according to the World Wildlife Fund, could only be sustained on a planet 25 per cent larger than our own.

Independent