The Guardian: “One example of the kind of problem the planet will face has been this year’s devastating famine in the Horn of Africa. Drought was the primary cause, but it has been exacerbated by pressure on the land; the population of the region has doubled since the early 1970s.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/oct/23/child-6bn-population-adnan-nevic
Hmmm…. population isn’t the only or even the key issue why there is famine in the Horn of Africa. Modern industrial methods of farming have undermined the region’s ability to adapt to the cycle of drought. Read this blog from people who actually work in the area…. http://www.iied.org/blogs/food-aid-needed-desperately-%E2%80%94-ultimately-its-not-answer (Interestingly this blog was first published in the Guardian….!)
I don’t deny population is a major issue for our world today but all this talk on population obscures the real problem: consumption. What and how we consume has significant implications for major economic questions such as: How can we be energy secure, how can we feed the whole world, how can we minimise waste, etc? Solving these questions according to the cycles and laws of the biosphere will go a long way in helping us deal with the population issue.
(See the TED video on Cradle to Cradle I posted earlier on some clues on what sustainable ways of consuming might look like)
