Population threat

Other contributors’ opinions on the merits or otherwise of renewable power sources, the futility of our local attempts to protect the atmosphere to reduce global warming, or even practical or political action in pursuit of these and other aims rather miss the important point.

With fossil fuels powering economic “growth” and medical advances making possible longer lives with better living standards, the world population has soared.

The reality is that it now out strips the p lane t’ sabili ty to sustainably support human populations without damaging the other residents of this planet on whom we depend. The damage done to the biosphere – that thin strip between the seabed and the cloud tops in which we all live – has been immense.

We feed ourselves by growing crops without regard to maintaining the land’s ability to continue to do it reliably without fertilisers. We cut down rainforest to grow more crops for financial gain, and fence land to exclude wildlife. We overfish the seas. We pollute the water and land with

plastic and the air with CO2 and other dangerous things.

Homo sapiens is amazing. Our ability to co-operate at the family and tribal level allowed evolution to provide the brains which have led to the wonderful lives many of us lead today. Homo sapiens is also terrible for the planet. Our inability to tackle issues is witnessed by endless war. Effective global organisation is unlikely until it is too late.

Older, simpler civilisations lasted only a few thousand years. We are on an exponential trend of overpopulation, dwindling and degraded food supplies, species extinction and more war. We should be tackling the cause of the problem and not the effects of it.

What should I tell my grandchildren?

MICHAEL PERRY Queens Avenue, Perth