The taboo, or semi-taboo, or consensus on discussing population
Some quotations...
…in all the discussions during the past year on how to lift Africa out
of poverty, the question of population has been conspicuous for its absence.
It is no longer
fashionable or politically correct.”
John Blacker. Demographer
Centre for Population Studies, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Letter to The Independent. 23rd January 2006
The Horn of Africa. ‘Tony Blair's report on Africa last year hardly mentioned population growth. “It's the unmentionable,” says a well-placed ambassador in Nairobi. “It's the elephant in the corner of the room,” says another. It is time to start talking about it now.’
The Economist. August 10th 2006
No one is willing to address the accelerating growth in the world’s population.
(The figures for world population increase) are staggering……it is incredible that there is not even a debate about limiting and maybe one day reversing growth.
The biggest obstacle to debate is the matter of possible solutions…birth control is objectionable to many on moral, religious and libertarian grounds. It is not surprising that green groups and politicians, worried about offending supporters, stay silent…
..It is understandable then that people are worried about discussing population, but fear of misrepresentation, offence or failure are not good enough reasons to ignore one half of the world's biggest problem: the population effect on climate change.
Juliette Jowit. Sunday March 18, 2007. The Observer
… it is time for a grown-up debate on an issue politicians avoid and on a problem that is unlikely to go away.
Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management: Business Briefing. October 2007
There is still a lot of taboo around population, and I think one indication of that is that none of the mainstream development agencies nor the environment agencies, while invited to submit evidence, has done so.
Catherine Budgett-Meakin, a member of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Population Development and Reproductive Health 2006, questioning a DFID spokesperson.
According to its most vociferous proponents…. population is "our number one environmental problem". But most greens will not discuss it…. Is this sensitivity or is it cowardice? Perhaps a bit of both.
George Monbiot January 29, 2008 The Guardian Full text at monbiot.com
“overpopulation” has become racially, religiously and ethnically sticky, and thus totally uncool. For decades no one in the population field has touched the word “overpopulation” with a bargepole. Lionel Shriver. Sunday Times May 18, 2008
Several readers have pointed out that the BMJ’s recent coverage of climate change has ignored a key issue—the need for population control. John Guillebaud and Pip Hayes give the same rebuke in their editorial this week. They may be right that "population" and "family planning" are taboo words.
Editorial British Medical Journal 31st July 2008
Population control and family planning are rising up the development agenda, after decades in which they were taboo.
Bronwen Maddox Chief Foreign Commentator, The Times, January 27, 2009
He (Stanley Johnson) continues to argue forcefully for population control, especially in the Third World, long after everyone else has got cold feet about this one, since it essentially invloves rich white people telling poor brown people to have fewer babies. Johnson is surely right about this neglected but vital issue…
Christopher Hart reviewing “Stanley, I presume’ by Stanley Johnson in the Sunday Times ‘Culture’ 22/3/09.
Why this strange silence? I meet no one who privately disagrees that population growth is a problem. No one – except flat-earthers – can deny that the planet is finite. We can all see it - in that beautiful picture of our earth taken by the Apollo mission. So why does hardly anyone say so publicly? There seems to be some bizarre taboo around the subject. “It’s not quite nice, not PC, possibly even racist to mention it.“ And this taboo doesn’t just inhibit politicians and civil servants who attend the big conferences. It even affects the environmental and developmental Non- Governmental Organisations, the people who claim to care most passionately about a sustainable and prosperous future for our children. Yet their silence implies that their admirable goals can be achieved regardless of how many people there are in the world or the UK even though they all know that it can’t.
Sir David Attenborough speaking with HRH Duke of Edinburgh in the chair
RSA President’s Lecture 2011: People and Planet 10th March 2011
BECAUSE OF THIS TABOO, OR SEMI-TABOO, OR CONSENSUS; BECAUSE OF THIS POLITICAL
CORRECTNESS, THIS SENSITIVITY, OR COWARDICE, OR COLD FEET; BECAUSE ‘NO
ONE’ WILL TOUCH “OVERPOPULATION” WITH A BARGEPOLE; BECAUSE
IT IS UNMENTIONABLE; BECAUSE BIRTH CONTROL IS OBJECTIONABLE TO MANY ON MORAL,
RELIGIOUS AND LIBERTARIAN GROUNDS; BECAUSE IT IS NOT QUITE NICE; BECAUSE IT
IS POSSIBLY EVEN RACIST TO MENTION IT: BECAUSE NO PRAISE, OR ADMIRATION, OR
VOTES COME FROM PROVIDING EFFECTIVE FAMILY PLANNING, WE ALLOW THE POOR IN DEVELOPING
COUNTRIES TO SUFFER EXTREME POVERTY, FOOD AND WATER SHORTAGES, SOCIAL UNREST
AND CONFLICT, AND THE MIGRATION OF MILLIONS OF DESPERATE PEOPLE FROM THEIR
HOMELAND.
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