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| New England Coalition for Sustainable Population |
Thank you very much for writing frankly about the problem of human-population growth in your
May 19 editorial "Too many people."
The United Nations projects that world population will, by 2050, rise by 2.5 billion people. This
scenario, however, one that assumes dramatic declines in fertility. If fertility rates remain
unchanged from today, the world will add about 5 billion people by 2050. That is roughly a 75
percent increase!
The World Wildlife Fund reports a 30 percent decline in bio-diversity in the last 30 years.
Background extinction rates now approach 1,000 percent above normal due to human activity.
Far from slowing down, global carbon-dioxide emissions are rising faster than they did in the
1990s!
If you believe in good stewardship of the Earth, can you really advocate that a 75 percent
increase in human beings is going to make the Earth or the community of nations any better off?
Robust family-planning initiatives that provide unconstrained access to contraception and
appropriate information for using these services are a high priority indeed. Meanwhile, highly
consuming and polluting nations like the United States need to look in the mirror and ask
themselves what sort of world they are leaving the next generation.
The future can be as abundant and healthy as we intend it to be. But there are two critical
societal exercises we must undertake first: giving mindful attention to our human numbers and
softening our aggregate impacts on ecology and climate.
JOE BISH
New London, N.H.
The writer is outreach and program coordinator for the New England Coalition for
Sustainable Population.
May 19 editorial "Too many people."
The United Nations projects that world population will, by 2050, rise by 2.5 billion people. This
scenario, however, one that assumes dramatic declines in fertility. If fertility rates remain
unchanged from today, the world will add about 5 billion people by 2050. That is roughly a 75
percent increase!
The World Wildlife Fund reports a 30 percent decline in bio-diversity in the last 30 years.
Background extinction rates now approach 1,000 percent above normal due to human activity.
Far from slowing down, global carbon-dioxide emissions are rising faster than they did in the
1990s!
If you believe in good stewardship of the Earth, can you really advocate that a 75 percent
increase in human beings is going to make the Earth or the community of nations any better off?
Robust family-planning initiatives that provide unconstrained access to contraception and
appropriate information for using these services are a high priority indeed. Meanwhile, highly
consuming and polluting nations like the United States need to look in the mirror and ask
themselves what sort of world they are leaving the next generation.
The future can be as abundant and healthy as we intend it to be. But there are two critical
societal exercises we must undertake first: giving mindful attention to our human numbers and
softening our aggregate impacts on ecology and climate.
JOE BISH
New London, N.H.
The writer is outreach and program coordinator for the New England Coalition for
Sustainable Population.