Contrasting views on human population growth

Public health: Sustainable development, human induced global climate change, and the health of children

“…In this sense it is rooted in responsibility and justice for others—can we accept that the developed nations currently use 50 times more energy per person than the developing nations; that the 57.5 million people added to the northern hemisphere population during this decade will add more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than the roughly 900 million added to the southern hemisphere; that global warming is likely to lead to a rise in sea level which will displace 30 million people living in low lying areas in India alone? The debate over the relative importance of population control in developing countries (is there a need for a “one child world”?19) and reduction of consumption in the rich developed countries was well covered in a recent special issue of the BMJ (9 October 1999). There has been a measure of agreement internationally that action must be taken, and at the world conference on sustainable development in Kyoto, Japan in 1997,20 a target of 8% reduction of 1990 emissions of CO 2 by 2010 was set for the European Union countries, 7% for the USA, and 6% for Japan and Canada.…”

The US Department of State is policing the population policy lockstep

“…This has to be the major theme of the next population conference in 2004. Massive discussion (“benign uproar”) is now needed, accompanied by a progressive change from the “first wisdom” to the “second wisdom.”1…”