And God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it. Every year there are 70 million more people on our planet. Which is to say that every three years there is a new United States, not only to be housed and fed, but demanding the right to work, education, and proper medical care. And this in a world where two-thirds of humanity are undernourished. Is it only somebody else's problem? The population density of England and Wales not only exceeds that of India and China, but even that of industrialised nations like Japan. Along with those other industrialised nations, we consume over 80 per cent of the world's non-renewable natural resources. Scientists are already predicting the exhaustion of some of those resources by the year 2,000, with as yet no guarantee of substitutes. Are we prepared to allow the poorer nations a larger slice of the cake? And, if we do so with such a large population density ourselves, will we suffer? Either the birth-rate must come down, or the death-rate will go up. No one starting a family today, who has interest in the survival and health of their children, will have any more than two. PROFESSOR PAUL EHRLICH Written and produced by RICHARD TAYLOR (Two children per family: page 8)
