A survey conducted in the Netherlands asked people three
questions. One: ‘Are there too many people in the world?’ Yes,
replied the majority. Next: ‘Are there too many people in the
Netherlands?’ Yes, again came the reply. Finally: ‘Are there too
many people in your community?’ No, they replied. The story is
told by demographer Nico van Nimwegen and it illustrates a key
point. ‘Too many people’ is almost inevitably too many other
people. Not us. History has shown us that if you scrape the
surface of anxieties about population growth, you often find
something else underneath. Be it related to race, class,
religion, culture, politics, environment, the common fear is
that of losing a portion of power or privilege. This finds
perfect expression in a campaign launched by the Optimum
Population Trust just prior to the Copenhagen Climate Summit.
Called PopOffsets it invites people in the rich world to offset
their own carbon emissions by funding family planning in the
Global South. The campaign, which has the backin