Population size and the Environment "Cinderella Story"

By Richard BlackEnvironment Correspondent, BBC News website Chris Rapley in Antarctica. Image: British Antarctic SurveyPopulation has become the Cinderella of the sustainability debateChris RapleySolving the Earth's environmental problems means addressing the size of its human population, says the head of the UK's Antarctic research agency.Professor Chris Rapley argues that the current global population of six billion is unsustainably high.Writing for the BBC News website, he says population is the "Cinderella" issue of the environmental movement.But unless it is addressed, the welfare and quality of life of future generations will suffer, he adds.Professor Rapley's comments come in the first of a new series of environmental opinion pieces on the BBC News website entitled The Green Room."If we believe that the size of the human [ecological] 'footprint' is a serious problem, and there is much evidence for this," he writes, "then a rational view would be that along with a raft of measures to reduce the footprint per person, the issue of population management must be addressed." Read Chris Rapley's columnA number of studies suggest that humankind is consuming the Earth's resources at an unsustainably fast rate.Even so, the issue of population is hardly ever discussed at environmental summits or raised by green lobby groups.Professor Rapley, Director of the British Antarctic Survey, acknowledges it is a thorny question, invoking the spectre of forced population control and even eugenics.He does not make suggestions about how the current upward trend, from the current six billion towards eight or nine billion by 2050, can be reversed.But, he says population is one of a number of issues leading to environmental degradation of various forms, and needs a higher priority than it currently receives."Unless and until this changes," he writes, "summits such as [the recent climate change meeting] in Montreal which address only part of the problem will be limited to at best very modest success, with the welfare and quality of life of future generations the ineluctable casualty."

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Population size 'green priority'

This raises the question of "what direction we should take?" and "what should be the priority?" I agree that the population is an important problem but after reading some articles in this past September issue of "Scientific American," I think the population problem will work out for itself. Don't forget, this will not be perfect and will come with many problems. Environment seems like a more "thorny" topic and should be addressed sooner. It seems like our political leaders are dragging their feet.