Overloaded Earth

OF THE many worries about the way our Planet Earth is going, the biggest and most central one is the explosive growth of the human species. Just six decades ago there were still fewer than 3 billion of us.

Now we are more than 7 billion. Estimates about where we are headed vary, but it seems fairly certain that the youngsters of today will in their lifetime see another two to three billion added to the number.

It is not as if there has been no will to do anything about it. The problem, in fact, is that some of the action taken has smacked so much of panic that it has tended to be counterproductive.

India is the most pertinent case in point. A mass sterilisation campaign it launched in the ’70s caused so much suspicion and resentment that mistrust is said to be hampering population control to this day.

The one-child policy China adopted in 1979 has been more successful, but it too has drawn criticism of gross human-rights abuses and has suffered its share of tragedy, such as couples killing their daughters.

It makes sense that these are the two countries most worried about their population growth. Together they constitute more than a third of the world population.

Meanwhile, however, the prognosis for Africa has become increasingly alarming, with estimates that its population could more than double to 2.4 billion by 2050.

Whether the land can provide for such numbers is a weighty question.

THE ANSWERis a resounding “no” when considering the destruction of the natural habitat that comes with massive population growth and the inability of development to keep up, as evidenced by the continent’s catastrophic levels of starvation, unemployment and illiteracy.

There was thus much to reflect on seriously on World Population Day – on Saturday – not least the fact that it was first called 26 years ago as an alarm call when humanity passed the 5 billion mark.

Clearly it is now incumbent on all leaders to do all they can to spread the message of family planning.