Population control has a new, high-profile cheerleader

We need fewer people to halt global warming - Telegraph :

"'My position on population is that I am disturbed that no one will talk about it,' [Chris] Rapley [head of the UK's Science Museum in London] says."

Maybe they aren't talking about over-population in Antarctica (Ripley's last job was running the British Antarctic Survey), but it is discussed elsewhere. I have even heard a high school girl bring up the subject in a casual conversation.

China's population controls have been widely publicized - and often criticized. When I was a young man, there was considerable attention given in the public prints to India's population control efforts. And, of course, there are many voices speaking of population control in Africa - from UN-funded family planning programs to hysterical claims that AIDS in Africa is a plot by white people to keep Africa backward.

Ripley's real problem is that effective measures to accomplish his goal are viewed with repugnance by so many people.

Meanwhile, birth rates have fallen below replacement levels in most of Europe. Even Mexico's birth rate has been falling rapidly. And the latest responsible demographic studies predict that world population will peak within this century and then slowly decline.

Ckicken Littles like Ripley and his pal Al Gore need a constant barrage of fear-mongering to drum up support for their coercive utopian visions.