Population growth and climate change

doi:10.1136/bmj.39575.691343.80

Published 24 July 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.39575.691343.80
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a576

Editorials

Population growth and climate change

Universal access to family planning should be the priority

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The world’s population now exceeds 6700 million, and humankind’sconsumption of fossil fuels, fresh water, crops, fish, and forestsexceeds supply.¹ These facts are connected. The annual increasein population of about 79 million means that every week an extra1.5 million people need food and somewhere to live. This amountsto a huge new city each week, somewhere, which destroys wildlifehabitats and augments world fossil fuel consumption. Every personborn adds to greenhouse gas emissions, and escaping povertyis impossible without these emissions increasing. Resourcingcontraception therefore helps to combat climate change, althoughit is not a substitute for high emitters reducing their percapita emissions. In 1798 Malthus predicted that as the populationincreased exponentially, shortfalls in food supply would beunavoidable.² A sevenfold increase in the population has led,210 years later, to unprecedented food shortages, escalatingprices, and riots. Until these events Borlaug’s "greenrevolution"³ . . . [Full text of this article]

John Guillebaud, emeritus professor of family planning and reproductive health¹, Pip Hayes, general practitioner²

¹ University College, London WC1E 6BT , ² St Leonard’s Practice, Exeter EX1 1SB

j.guillebaud@lineone.net

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Rapid Responses:

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