Population

For many years writers and correspondents have been warning about the forthcoming difficulties arising as a consequence of the evergrowing world population. World statesmen and politicians are aware but it is the elephant in the room at international conferences that is rarely, if ever, mentioned. The situation has not been helped by barmy religious sects that go around preaching that contraception is a sin. With the exception of China, who have made serious attempts, even those nations with the fastest growing population seem to be reluctant to take steps to control the situation. There are conferences to discuss global warming and atmospheric pollution, food shortages, future energy supplies, oceanic pollution, waste disposal, population migration, but rarely is the situation of ever expanding population discussed as the root cause of all the difficulties. The prophets of doom have predicted that pressures on necessary supplies in areas of fastest growing population, which are quite often regions least able to produce and generate these supplies, would ultimately lead to mass migrations and conflicts. Currently there is a significant problem with migration, some of this is due to those fleeing from conflicts, but much of it is described as economic migration, people who are in desperate poverty in their homelands seeing other countries that are relatively prosperous. It could be argued that these current problems are the beginning of the mass migrations predicted. The more prosperous nations are facing an awful dilemma, humanitarian considerations would lead them to accept that these migrants have a just cause and endeavour to accommodate them, which, in general, they have so far tried to do. Common sense, however, tells them that they cannot go on doing this indefinitely or they too will be seriously over populated and their people will be reduced to similar levels of poverty, already people in the better off countries are starting to protest over the number of migrants entering their country and the cries of protest are getting louder. What is to be done? Europe is currently wringing its hands, should they go on accepting the migrants, trying to disperse them through the Community? Should they just send them back to where they came from? Should they try and destroy the boats that can bring the migrants? Australia has taken more positive action by not allowing the migrants into Australia but putting them onto offshore islands. In South East Asia a number of countries have taken a hard line, not allowing the boats to land regardless of the plight of the people on board, simply giving them food and water and sending them off out to sea, not knowing where they might finish up and apparently not caring. I doubt any of these measures will stop the migration, although they might reduce the rate. Of course one can argue that the better off nations should provide the help deemed necessary to improve the situation in the countries from where the migrants are coming. To some extent that is what they have been doing but, unfortunately, it seems that the consequence of this help is to further increase the rate of population growth in those countries. It is a dire situation but, unless these fast growing nations can do something to stop their populations growing faster than their economies, then I fear that a decade or two from now we might see, in some areas and after many warnings of course, migrant boats machine gunned and widespread suffering. Ron Watts