Letter: Too many people
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Sir: At the Kyoto conference on climate change world leaders may agree to make a cut in greenhouse gases. Efforts will presumably be concentrated on improving technology to make more efficient use of energy.
Whatever can be done in this direction should be done, but there are enormous difficulties. For example, Japan claims that 20 more nuclear power stations would be needed for it to make another 5 per cent cut in carbon dioxide emissions.
We hear of many proposals to tackle the technological aspect of the problem and a few to moderate affluent lifestyles. However, especially in the richer and therefore most polluting countries, we hear of none addressing the question of the amount of people, whose numbers multiplied by their per capita consumption lead to the total impact of technology on the environment.
Measures towards gradual, voluntary reduction in national populations should be an important strand in any strategy to combat climate change. The trend towards smaller populations already exists in a few European countries and should be welcomed and planned for.
SUE BIRLEY
Co-ordinator, The Campaign for Political Ecology
Wanborough, Wiltshire
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments