Look to the future

Bill jamie son presented sobering facts on world population growth and mass migration (Perspective, 8 November). Food and water scarcity, deforestation, habitat loss and pollution are problems caused by overpopulation, but war makes them worse by uprooting millions of people and making them into refugees.

Population growth exacerbates global heating. Just as burning fossil fuels enabled the human population to grow to present levels, so further growth will cause even more burning of fossil fuels and pump more CO2 into the atmosphere.

Planet Earth is heating up, hence the ice melting at the North and South poles. Already the increased energy (heat) in the climate system is causing more hurricanes. Climate scientists are telling us to cut CO2 emissions drastically or risk climate chaos, and all the signs are that they are right.

Mass migrations add to population growth rates. Whereas settled people plan their families and treat the environment with long-term care, desperate people are forced to take a more short-term attitude. That is why settled people have a lower birth rate than migrants

Hans Rosling, the population expert, demonstrated that education, particularly of girls, is the best way to reduce population growth rates. India and China tried

coercive methods which were resented. Education, however, respects the autonomy of the individual. It enables young women to see that they can choose their way of life and choose how many children to have and when.

The practical implications are clear. We should encourage governments to be peacemakers, not arms dealers, for peace means settled communities. We should support charities and Government aid for education. And we should also cut the amount of fuel we burn, in whatever form. We want to do the right thing, not just for ourselves but for future generations, and therein lies our best hope.

LES REID Morton Street, Edinburgh