Smaller Families

During the summer I took part in the making of a short film about the human population with the charity Population Matters.

Each one of us puts pressure on the natural world, consumes the Earth’s finite resources and contributes to climate change. Many people today now recognise that and seek to live in a more sustainable and environmentally friendly manner. Steps such as recycling, thinking about how we travel and changing the way we eat are increasingly common, taking the environment into consideration in our daily decision making processes. Some are also including these environmental considerations in their bigger life decisions, about the size of family they want to have.

Those people concerned about environmental welfare expect the personal decisions we make to be influenced by what is happening in the world around us. Right now, the world is facing environmental and social problems on a scale we have not faced before, and much of this is exacerbated by the burgeoning demands of an ever increasing population. When we decide whether to bring more children into this world, it would do us well to consider what kind of world you will be providing for them in their future. How will more people on earth make it easier to achieve sustainability so that the future is secure for future generations?