16 Mar 2011
Broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough presents the 2011 RSA President’s Lecture.
The dangers facing the earth’s ecosystems are well known and the subject of great concern at all levels. Climate change is high on the list. But argues Sir David Attenborough, there is an underlying and associated cause – population growth.
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Peter Lewis - 07 Jun 2011 9:27am
When is the BBC goiing to step up and broad cast the truth of overpopulation and the suppression of women ? Articles like the above so beautifully delivered could be used and made inclusive to everyone so we all talk about the elephant in the room and become more empowered.
Denise Robinson-Hurst - 28 May 2011 3:09am
What a beautiful amazing planet we live on. At what cost are we going to loose it and how many more humans do we need..stop population growth!! Protecting the plants and animals we have left should be our top priority. (Religion is power and money it's just another money making organisation and Governments too).
Sahara Redwoman - 23 May 2011 8:54am
Yes population and greedy economic growth driving current global systems are a problem greatly due to the laws of exponential growth."The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." - Prof.Al Bartlett. But we also need to live more intelligently on the planet - the biomass of ants is greater than that of humans - but their survival is not creating global warming! We need to adapt our materials and energy economies to harness natural assets for our basic needs and conserve these is circular systems as nature has worked for millions of years in perfect cyclic systems.Until we have adopted such principles exponential population growth continues to threaten us with energy and resource scarcity.
GrannyVe - 22 May 2011 2:46pm
Mark - Please listen to David Attenborough's speech - it is not Brenda who is stating that Catholicism should do something but Attenborough is saying this. He is not just blaming Catholics but arguing for ethics to influence religion. He is asking us to re-think our beliefs and try get our leaders to encourage policies that will curtain population growth. What I like about it is that he takes it as a 'given' that it is humans who are to blame for climate change. I can't believe that some people still do not believe that climate change is a reality. Also he puts the emphasis on educating and empowering women. Nothing you can argue about there then.
Mark - 21 May 2011 12:29am
Just a note on Brenda's comment. Christianity is not responsible for population growth (which de facto is a problem) and certainly not Catholicism (look at population growth for Spain, Italy, Ireland etc). The best way to reduce population is to encourage sustainable development, reduce infant mortality and otherwise empower the poorest. Scapegoating religion may be comfortable but is simply inaccurate and unscientific.
Jon Quirk - 20 May 2011 11:30am
Well done Sir David! We need influential thinkers, politicians and all who care about the future to join him in breaking through this taboo of silence that threatens, not just humans, but every living, growing, breathing thing on our planet. We are the both the custodians and the responsible party; we must act even if only out of self-interest.
Robert Jacobson - 16 May 2011 12:08am
Since we're getting down to unpopular truths, population growth is a sine qua non of the capitalist system. So long as "growth" is festishized as the means to greater wealth, the essence of capitalism, there will be no curtailing population growth. How real do we want to be about solving our problems -- or surrendering to doxology born of ideology?
Brenda Polacca - 13 May 2011 8:35pm
I remeber the first Earth Day in the US in Washington DC, 1970. The main focus was population growth but it obviously feel on deaf ears and so the conversation wasn't actively sustained..We must begin this conversatin anew or there will be hard choice to make in out future. Do we continue to save every human born? Do we sacrifice all life to sustain our own, how arrogant humans are. Or do we begin to tackle this huge problem at it's major source, the religious institutions. We have Catholics who denounce birth control, we have right wing Christians who are anti choice but elect polititian who don't want to fund programs to deal with all of the unwanted children who result in forced birhs. We have Fundamentalist Christians who fight with school districts who want to teach family planning and birth control and we have a broken social services system that encourages multiple births to those who are enrolled. This is where we begin because this is where we will have the greatest impact in the shortest amount of time.
Peter Strachan - 27 Mar 2011 4:12am
The question is: how do we make the changes that Sir David urges? Demographic explosions, in whatever communities, need to be stopped and Sir David tells us it can be done by educating women. I believe that The Hunger Project has the most effective method if it could be rolled out on a massive scale, we may have a chance as a species.
Sharon - 19 Mar 2011 4:45pm
Well done Sir David Attenborough for speaking out, breaking taboos on both population and raising the issue of limits and the impossibility of infinite growth on a finite planet. There are a number of groups working specifically to challenge this dangerous and misplaced addiction to growth, including: Post Growth http://postgrowth.org Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy www.steadystate.org Growthbusters www.growthbusters.org new economics foundation www.neweconomics.org
juliaan van acker - 19 Mar 2011 6:56am
Sir A, has not the courage to mention the demographic explosion in islamic countries