From John Hunwick
In seeking to answer “how can we best protect nature in an increasingly crowded world?” Fred Pearce proposes a limited dichotomy (20 June, p 26). He offers the choice between living sustainably within nature or embracing a range of new technologies. In my view, humans are faced with different choices: we can live within ecological limits or crash towards extinction.
For humans to live within nature requires adhering to a few basic principles: no couple to have more than two children; use only renewable energy; and all forms of technology must be fully recyclable. Any deviation from this, or even a lifestyle separate from nature, will fail.
The second possible outcome is one that no one wants to talk about: a crash in human population, probably as a result of all-out war, and the destruction of civilised society.
Humanity can either become ecologically sustainable, or provide a future with very low human numbers eking out an existence in an environment that lacks the beauty and inspiration of the one we have now.
Port Lincoln, South Australia
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