The Eco Guide to Population Growth
The regularity with which I’m contacted by population worriers – people who think it’s pointless discussing green energy, climate change and ethical pensions when the elephant in the room is actually the new human in the room – is impressive. They say that the planet needs fewer people. End of.
The numbers are indeed eye catching. Today there are 7 billion humans alive (twice the number who were alive in 1965) – and each hour we add 10,000 more. By 2050, UN demographers predict, there will be at least 9 billion of us putting a strain on life-sustaining resources.
Some experts suggest we’re at “peak farmland”, – meaning the predictions of cleric Thomas Malthus, who published his population theory in 1798, are coming to fruition. Malthus suggested that our global population would outpace food supplies until war, disease and famine arrived to halt the party.
