Paying the price to save the world
It’s confession time. I have finally come out as a fully-fledged tree-hugger. Aged ten, I planted my first tree (a eucalyptus), bought a polecat ferret (I had confused endangered polecats with polecat ferrets) and gave my first eco-donation to Save the Whales. These were not things to declare openly, being un-cool.
Later, like many people, I was sceptical over the more dramatic claims made by climate doom-mongers. But the simple observation of the loss of so many animal and plant species combined with visible environmental destruction forced me to accept that change is needed.
Remedial environmental action is long overdue, but my super-cynical City background makes me certain that government programmes have little chance of being effective. Yet there are four good reasons to be cheerful and to believe that the tide has already turned.
Population will peak soon
To state the obvious, the prime cause for planet-wide environmental problems is too many people. From one billion in 1800 to 2.5 billion in 1950 and now eight billion. The Old Testament solution of killing every first-born child would certainly work, but understandably is out of fashion. Yet it is becoming increasingly probable that peak population is less than a generation away. I have long watched United Nations and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development forecasts shortening. In
