Kidding
Aside Statement for World Overpopulation Awareness Week 2000
12 September 1999 - the day the population of the world
reached 6 billion. It's an almost unimaginable number, one of those numbers
that's so big it begins to be meaningless. 100 million? that's getting a bit
more imaginable, in October 2000 that's the amount of people that will have been
added to this planet since we reached the 6 billion mark. Even so, it's still
difficult to grasp the true scale of the issue. How about 6.5 million? In 2000
that's how many people we'll add to the planet every month. Still too many for
it to feel real? How about 210,000 the number of people we will add today. Or 36
- the number we have added in the 15 seconds it's taken you to read this
paragraph.
We all know that the population of the world is growing,
we're all concerned about it - the lack of resources, the overcrowding, the
poverty- but how many of us understand that we in Europe are playing our full
part in contributing to that population explosion?
But who in Europe is causing the problem? Bulgaria, Czech
Republic, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, they all
sound likely candidates don't they? Not so, all those countries have total
fertility rates far lower than the UK - at least 20% lower in fact.
According to current predictions, the population of the UK
will continue to increase until 2026, by which time we will have added another 2
million to our population. We won't be back at the number we are now until 2044.
Imagine, another 200,000 people using a London transport system which is already
at breaking point, 2 million more people using the currently overstretched NHS,
and hundreds of thousands more cars polluting our presently asthma inducing
atmosphere.
The simple fact is that the link between birth and death
has been broken and Europe is the area of the world most affected. In Europe the
proportion of children is predicted to decline from 18% in 1998 to 14% in 2050,
while the proportion of older persons will increase from 20% in 1998 to 35% in
2050 when one in every three people will be 60 or above.
The issue of over population isn't just about having
below- replacement fertility, it's about a mind shift which acknowledges that
the age distribution of our population is changing rapidly and we, in turn, need
to make a major change in our view of reproduction in order to deal with this.
We no longer live in a society that needs to encourage
people to reproduce, quite the contrary, yet we still give additional financial
benefits and leave privileges to people with children. Don't misunderstand me,
I'm all in favour of flexible working practices, and maternity leave is a
critically important right, but in an overpopulated world why do we give a
special priority to those who have children? Why do we perpetuate the myth that
everyone ought to have children and that everyone is suitable to take on the
difficult job of being a parent?
If we in the UK can't free ourselves from the expectation
of reproduction and change our attitudes in order to ensure that we can live an
environmentally and financially sustainable future how can we hope to influence
developing nations to tread this path?
Tackling the issue of world overpopulation requires a
mindset change of massive proportion, so far we haven't even scratched the
surface.
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