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Saturday 21 June 2014

Malthusians - still ghastly


Sir David Attenborough on the need to control the global human population. Malthusian fear is over two hundred years old and all those earnest faces in Sir David's congregation suggest it isn't going away any time soon.

As with so many fears, fear of over-population it is somewhat irrational but also has a certain appeal. In many daily situations there are too many people. Traffic jams, crowded cities, crowded beauty spots, crowded beaches and so on and so on. It feels wrong to me too, but not all that wrong. It's supportable.

As I see it, there is an obvious problem in making a political issue of it. As ever it's the people. Take a look at the list of patrons for Population Matters, a list headed by Sir David. 

Paul Ehrlich for example - world class expert in being wrong. For me it's the company these people keep as much as anything else. It's not their ghastly self-importance - I can live with that.

2 comments:

James Higham said...

Plenty of desert and wilderness for everyone to fit in.

A K Haart said...

James - it was all desert and wilderness once.