From Christopher Davey.
JOHN Boothman’s essay (JEP, 27 June) on Jersey’s expanding population opens a welcome debate.

He is correct to identify no coherent States plan to limit – or indeed not to limit – population growth, and he is right to urge such policies as will promote ‘lean growth’ – i.e. mechanisms whereby more efficient use is made of our own labour force and available resources.

We should certainly be encouraging those keen and able to work beyond 60 or 65 to do so. And we do need to enforce measures to limit entry. As he says: ‘If we do nothing, I fear we risk the destruction of everything that makes our Island special.’

Nevertheless, I submit that Mr Boothman has only put a toe in the water. The indisputable facts of this crucial issue need little rehearsal, and some of the really shocking developments that are already manifest in the UK could so easily come to pass over here.

These are all a consequence of well-meaning but ill-thought-out policies that refuse to face up to the indisputable global numbers. One million die each week, yet for every one who dies, two are born, and the world’s population is set to rise from six billion to nine billion well before 2050.

Some 6% of the world own 59% of the world’s wealth; 50% of people are under-fed; 80% suffer bad living conditions; 70% are uneducated; just 1% have a higher education and a computer (OPT figures).

An army of crusaders put in heroic work to offset these bald numbers, but when scientists tell us that this planet’s resources can only sustain one billion for everyone to enjoy a full, productive and comfortable lifestyle, the idea that we need a radical change in attitude towards child-rearing – and to sustaining life beyond its sell-by date – can no longer be rejected.

The bearing and raising of children must no longer be seen as an automatic right, but as a responsible privilege, and must be limited by the straightforward mechanisms already available. Moreover, those expressing a very clear wish to end their lives should now be assisted, with living wills becoming the norm. A cultural sea-change is crucial.

We need to face up to the stark reality that soon such arguments are likely to become academic. Unless the world is struck by a meteorite or succumbs to a super-volcano, the time has long passed when plagues and earthquakes could be relied upon to effect their timely cull.

Governments may trumpet that they are taking measures to counter global warming, yet few are doing more than tinker around the edges. Unless radical, global steps are taken now to hold down population growth, other solutions will be ineffective.

Global warming is the direct consequence of the activity of an accelerating world population combined with people’s naturally rising aspirations. While governments fiddle, the world is set to burn.

It is time for our Island politicians, too, to begin to think and act realistically – and for the long term.
La Robinette,
Rue du Crocquet,
St Brelade.