From Roger Plenty
I appreciate the warnings about the damage that human activity is doing to the planet’s ecosystem, but wonder why the issue of population is so seldom mentioned in this connection (2 April, p 8). Even if it is, it is usually just to say that population is expected to rise to 9 billion by 2050.
There is nothing inevitable about that figure, however. It is the medium of three projections by the United Nations Population Fund and can only be an estimate. The low projection for that year is 7.4 billion falling slowly, and the high projection is 11 billion rising rapidly.
If the high figure turns out to be the case then the world will be in deep trouble, but if the low figure prevails then all the measures you describe will be that much more effective. We can not afford to neglect population.
Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK
