Rampant market taking toll on the planet

IN your enlightening feature on world population (Forum, Oct 22), you lay out the current state of the world in numbers but avoid a real analysis on the inequities facing new citizens of this planet.

There are massive challenges facing the planet, both financial and environmental, but all stemming from an unsustainable economic model.

The problem stems from the fact that we have cravenly allowed an elite to control the economy, and thus society, by handing over control over our own destinies to a privately-controlled market.

This elite has no interest in sharing, as sharing would mean them relinquishing control over the planet. Even after the disaster that has befallen the western economies since 2008, caused by the insatiable greed of this elite, no serious reform of the financial system has been carried out by a political class made impotent by market pressures.

However, ‘citizen 7 billion’ should not be despondent, as illustrated by the now global ‘Occupy’ movement, people all over the world are starting to express their protest at the obvious inequities in the world and how this work in progress may yet yield a fair result.

Barry Walsh

Church Rd

Blackrock

Cork