Yet another triumph for Kevin Myers with his article 'Africa has to learn lessons -- the hard way if necessary' (Irish Independent, October 30).

The appalling catastrophe of out-of-control population growth in Africa and elsewhere seems to be a complete unmentionable, not only for Concern and other aid agencies, but also for the global political establishment, despite the ruination of our planet and the misery and death directly resulting.

The facts are utterly stark. The global population is growing at 80 million per year. This is the equivalent of a new country the size of Germany every 12 months. The African population has grown from 221 million in 1950 to 973 million last year and is projected to reach 1.7 billion by 2050. In contrast, the population of Europe shrank by three million between 1950 and last year.

The consequences are even starker. According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, the number of chronically hungry people in the world -- that is people suffering from perpetual and severe hunger -- has risen to one billion. In addition, as many as two billion more people live in perpetual food insecurity -- missing meals and often not knowing where their next meal will come from.

Lunatic population growth is precisely the reason why world food prices have risen and will continue to rise, pleaded by Concern's Tom Arnold as the excuse for Ethiopia's plight. You're focused on the symptom, Tom, not the cause.

The pressure on the planet's resources is such that "ecological debt day", the day in the year marking the point when global consumption exceeds the Earth's annual biocapacity, has this year reached September 25. For the rest of this year, we will now be eating into environmental resources that can never be replaced. And ecological debt day is getting earlier every year.

Over-population of the planet is the principle driver of gross over-consumption which is pushing many of our natural life support systems toward a precipice and destroying the bio-diversity on which life on this planet depends. As many famous experts have pointed out, if we continue to destroy critical ecosystems in this way nothing can bring them back so that the very existence of humanity will be at risk.

It is incredible that the response of world leaders to the issue of over-population in Africa and elsewhere is a deafening silence. Why? China saw the dangers decades ago and took the difficult but correct and courageous decision to stabilise its population.

All foreign aid should be contingent on the implementation of a strictly policed and successful policy of population stabilisation.

Tony Herbert

SUMMERHILL NORTH, CORK



Irish Independent