I just came across this. It’s the elephant in the room, but very important, in my opinion.
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I just came across this. It’s the elephant in the room, but very important, in my opinion.
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Dragons Rule OK. V.M.Sang (author) 
It is indeed the elephant in the room: poorer people – for a variety of reasons – often have more children than they can adequately care for; there is a tension between living ‘well’ and the ‘protection’ of wildlife – the latter is often seen as being at the expense of the former, especially as the cost of entering many of our wildlife facilities is way beyond wat even middle-class families can afford – there is an element of ‘greed’ here as the prices are geared towards the overseas markt. Greed? Perhaps not: it costs money to maintain a national game park and all the facilities within it and the government cannot be relied upon to be a helping hand.
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The idea of human overpopulation is considered by some to be racist, but I think we humans (especially in N America and Europe) need to reduce our consumption of everything. That goes against the eternal growth tenet of capitalism, however.
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I have know that overpopulation is the issue for many years. Sadly, most people, especially in developing countries, are struggling to keep their families supplied with basic needs like food. Concern for wildlife is generally limited to the wealthier middle classes.
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Yes, I take your point, but if we don’t do something, then the whole situation will get worse. Humans can’t exist without the natural world.
The answer is, of course, to encourage smaller families. It would ease the food problem. It’s easier to feed two children than five or six.
But the demand for material goods is another problem. Once it was one car per family. At the most. Many families didn’t have a car at all. Now everyone who has passed their test wants their own. All these cars adds to the pollution of the atmosphere.
The production of so many material goods to satisfy the desires of the population also puts a heavy burden on land and nature, as well as consuming finite resources.
Oh, dear! I think a blog post on this should be forthcoming soon. I’m getting carried away.
But I’ve no idea what the answer is! 😊
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I also don’t have the answer. I agree with you completely, but I live in a third world country and I can state that it is the uneducated and poverty stricken people who tend to have more children. Education and family planning go hand in hand. The populations are so big now upliftment is almost impossible. There are effectively 3 million tax payers in South Africa supporting 29 million government grants. Not very sustainable.
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Gosh! That does sound unsustainable.
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