Sir, - The malthusian fears of Myles Crowe (June 17th) that the population explosion threatens the earth's survival are, I believe, misplaced. Certainly the earth is threatened by the exploitation of its resources. However, as 30 times more energy is consumed per person in rich countries than in poor countries, it is clear that the threat comes from countries which are not experiencing huge population growth.
Also, we in western developed countries have already gone to war (with Iraq) over a threat to our oil supply and in any future scramble for the world's diminishing resources we are likely to do so again to sustain our way of life.
It is instructive to ask why so many countries have a First World death rate and a Third World birth rate. Essentially, economic development over the past 200 years in the West has been matched by social change; both of these have worked in tandem to reduce family sizes. However, the Third World has imported Western medicine to reduce the death rate but has not had the necessary economic development to sustain the increasing population or the social changes required to reduce family sizes.
Some of the many examples of social change which have occurred in the West but not elsewhere include the provision of social welfare, which means parents do not need to have many children in order to provide themselves with security in old age; opportunities for women to work outside the home and be independent; better family planning; later marriages; and a growing status attached to being single.
Crippling foreign debt, debt restructuring requirements, the arms trade and questionable trading practices also help keep the Third World in poverty. But, as I said above, it is not you nor I, nor our way of life which is threatened by the population explosion - only the hopes of millions who live in the streets, shanties and rubbish tips of the Third World.
Yours, etc.,
Lower Mount Street
Dublin 2