Population trends today are a highly contested issue that emerge
in a range of related debates: climate change; development;
environmental sustainability; migration and, in the case of the
advanced industrial nations like the UK, ageing. Often they are
either cast simplistically as the amplifier of all society’s
problems or simply omitted from the debate, deemed politically
inflammatory. We need public engagement on population growth and
its effects. At the moment it can be cast as the bête noir of
public discourse, because no one wants to be accused of being
Malthusian or neocolonialist. In the developed world, where
people have access to information, education and services, women
have been empowered and are able to choose smaller families –
and population growth has declined. The developed world does not
want to be seen to be dictating to developing countries, where
population growth still continues at a rapid pace in some areas.
The UN predicts that global population will increase between
35–60 per cent by