To save the planet we must stop acting like locusts devouring all before us

WHILE the debate on peak oil, carbon emissions and climate change hots up, I am amazed that one of the main underlying causes is ignored: over-population.

In recent years, static populations in developed countries have masked an explosion in the overall world population.

In the early Christian period, the world population was about 300 million and by the year 1800 it had grown to approximately one billion.

By 1960 it had trebled to three billion and then, incredibly, doubled to 6 billion by the year 2000. It is projected to reach 9 billion by 2040.

The planet simply cannot sustain this population, particularly when all nine billion will aspire to a ‘first world’ lifestyle.

For the past 200 years we’ve been breeding and acting like locusts. We procreate to fill every available space and we devour all available resources as if there is no tomorrow.

Tackling this problem raises the most difficult moral, ethical and sociological issues.

But if we ignore it, the consequences for humankind are unimaginable.

Dick Keane

35 Silchester Park

Glenageary

Co Dublin