Contrary to his assertion, it is Dr Austen Invereigh (Letters, 8 September), rather than Professor Colin Green (Letters, 7 September), who is hindered by “first world myopia” in his attitude to the world population issue.
Those who live or work in developing countries encounter innumerable, especially poor, women who are denied the means to control their fertility – a right the rest of us take for granted. Their ability to enhance their families’ and their own welfare by spacing and limiting the number of their children is often thwarted by opposition to birth control on the part of organised religious bodies such as the Catholic church.
Advocating family planning is not “eliminating the poor”. It is simply a matter of enabling poor people in developing countries to exercise the choices available to rich people everywhere, including Catholics. Had this problem been addressed decades ago, a great deal of suffering could have been averted. Moreover, the human population and concomitant environmental crisis would not have reached anything like current levels.
Jeanne Openshaw
Brighton
• Of course the developed countries consume too much, but that does not negate the fact that there are too many people to survive even at a lowered consumption level. We are using up the world’s resources at an astounding rate. Even if everyone in the world limited their fish consumption to once a week (I don’t eat other kinds of meat), the oceans would still be hovering on depletion. To say that population is not a problem on a finite planet is ridiculous.
Katherine DelaNoy
Eagle, Colorado, USA
• The pope’s new views on the environment are indeed welcome. Any debate on the environment that focuses solely on overconsumption by rich countries is still missing out the role played by rapid population growth in creating inequality and environmental degradation. Very poor countries such as Niger could develop faster if population growth were halted. Gains are transitory when any improvement they win, such as more children in school, is followed by a rapid rise in the number of children needing schooling. Similarly, when better farming practices bring more food, they still do not bring more land for everyone to live on. No debate on the environment should ignore either of the twin factors of population growth and overconsumption, however inconvenient this may seem to those who wish to prevent other people from using contraception.
Helen Haran
St Albans, Hertfordshire
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