VERSION|0.5.1|NAME|Dinah|DATE|1372763144|CONTENT|There was an interesting discussion about population growth on Radio 4’s ‘Start the Week’ yesterday.  Apparently, the increase in the world’s population is not only due to people breeding, but to increasing longevity in the population, meaning many more people are still alive when their grandchildren, great-grandchildren and even great-great grandchildren come along.  The maximum number of babies born in any year was back in 1990 or 1991, (can’t remember which) meaning that the total has fallen since then, but this won’t be reflected by any population decrease until the population reaches ten million or so, barring a plague or catastrophic planetary event.

The best way to ensure that people have smaller families is by educating women.  Women who have, or who are enabled to have, aspirations beyond the home and traditional roles generally have fewer children.  If the Taliban view that women should not be educated or allowed to leave the house spreads, this will probably spell doom for the planet.

In the past, the population was kept down by famines, plagues, infections, lack of sanitation and general ignorance about the prevention of disease.  It is ironic that the advances in medicine and public health which have so relieved the suffering of humankind now threaten its very existence. 
 
Apart from some hand-wringing and the occasional localised gesture, religion doesn’t have any answers to the problems of over-population, environmental degradation, loss of habitat and over-consumption of resources.  It can do nothing to overcome that fact that our brains have not evolved sufficiently for us as a species to put the long-term health of the planet above our immediate, short-term needs and aspirations.
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