Are Humans 10,000 times too common ?

So Steve Jones, Head of the Biology Dept. at University College of London is quoted as saying.

Is he right and if so what are the consequences ? It always puzzles me that overpopulation is such a contentious issue and one that many would rather not even discuss. Surely nobody in their right minds would think it sensible to put double the recommended number of passengers in a boat or on an aircraft. Yet when the vehicle is Planet Earth it seems people often go into denial about it.

So whats been happening to the population of the world. To start with, since started you reading this post the world population has already increased by about 120 ! In fact although the population has been growing continuously since the end of the Black Death in 1400, most of the growth has been in the last 50 years.The main reasons for this are advances in medical science and intensive agriculture.

Historic population growth

While human populations continue to expand, the resources upon which we all rely, such as fresh water, land and soil are finite. Not only this, but our impacts on the earth and its habitats grow alongside and as a consequnce of population growth. Wildlife is down an average of 30% in the last 40 years (WWF). Then there is also the massive issue of climate change for civilisation to get to grips with.

World population is currently estimated at around 7 billion. It is forecast to reach between 8 and 10.5 billion between the year 2040-2050 according to the United Nations. Most estimates for the carrying capacity of the Earth are between 4 billion and 16 billion. So depending on which estimate is used, human overpopulation may or may not have already occurred.

Forecast growth by continent

Overpopulation divides opinions and one of the arguments by those who say that overpopulation is a red herring, is that fair distribution of resources is the real issue. Fairer distribution of wealth and resources is certainly an issue for civilisation, however it seems self-evident to me that this on its own won't solve the problems caused by overpopulation, it will, at best, temporarily mitigate some of the impacts.

So what can we do to address overpopulation ?

Here are some of the general measures that have wide support :

For developing countries

• Encourage economic development
• Encourage gender equality
• Fund reproductive healthcare

For the UK

• Improve opportunities and education for young women
• Improve sex education
• Improve the quality of family planning advice

Of course it is possible - and could be necessary, to adopt more radical carrot and stick type measures, financial and otherwise to control population growth.  Personally I hope that global civilisation will recognise and respond to the challenge of controlling its growth without the need for extreme measures. Some countries, such as Bangladesh, the Congo and Brazil have already shown what can be achieved in this respect. 

Our vision is of a global population size providing agood standard of living for all, a healthy environment and environmental sustainability.  - Population Matters

For more information
Wikipedia - overpopulation
BBC - Population 7 billion - UN Sets out the challenges
World Population Awareness


What can I do ?
Population Matters

An alternative view !
Debunk the population myth

Sod the Pheasants !

Update 30.5.2012 DEFRA have dropped their plans following a public uproar ! read more here http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/315871-the-public-steps-up-for-buzzards


News this week that DEFRA (a Government Department) are proposing to spend up to £375,000 of our money netting buzzards and destroying their nests.


Buzzards can regularly be seen soaring majestically in the skies or occasionally perched on telegraph poles in country lanes. You might wonder what have these birds of prey, that have come back from the brink over the last 20 years, done to cause such offence.  

Image courtesy of the RSPB

Killing pheasant chicks is the answer. If you not up with the country scene pheasants are born, fed and released to provide shooting for the "country set" and those who aspire to such status. Never mind that they are such a slow flying birds that they can barely take off the ground and hardly pose a challenging target.

Not surprisingly the Countryside Alliance welcomed the Government's "study", saying it showed the issue of predation by buzzards was being taken seriously. A spokesperson is quoted as saying "It is a shame the government have had to commission this expensive exercise simply to appease a group of people who believe that raptors have a greater significance than any other bird."

The RSPB has described the idea of taking wild buzzards into captivity or destroying their nests was "totally unacceptable". Their conservation director, Martin Harper, said: "We are shocked by Defra's plans to destroy buzzard nests and to take buzzards into captivity to protect a non-native game bird released in its millions.


So just to sum this up - at a time when cuts are being made services like health and social care, the Government can find £375,000 to safeguard the shooting fraternity's "sport" and break the wildlife and countryside laws into the bargain (that's unless they change them first). 


Find out more 


Press association article
RSPB information on Buzzards

What can you do ?

You can email DEFRA Minister Richard Benyon MP  and tell him what you think about this illegal, scientifically-illiterate and unethical trial. You might want to ask him what scientific evidence was used to justify the proposal and ask him whether there was any consultation on the issue, and if there was, which organisations were consulted?

There's (no?) more fish in the sea

Yesterday I treated myself to a couple of hours fishing from a local pier. The weather was pleasant and I was fortunate enough to catch a couple of mackerel. I had one for breakfast this morning and very nice it was too !

Mackerel are a stunning fish. This photo doesn't really do them justice.

Back in January 2011, TV chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall also went on a fishing trip. His was to find more about the industrial end of sea fisheries. What he found shocked him.

He learnt that half the fish caught in the North Sea are being thrown back into the sea, dead, because of EU laws. These laws are intended to help conserve fish stocks by setting limits on how much of species such as cod haddock and plaice can be landed by individual commercial fishermen.  Fish "over-quota" accidentally caught in a mixed catch have to be thrown back overboard – invariably dead !

So, Fearnley-Whittingstall launched a campaign ‘Hugh’s Fish Fight’ to try to change EU law. He was soon supported by a wide coalition of environmental bodies and an public response. Over 700, 000 people have signed the fish fight petition, and so many people emailed their MPs to protest about discards that they forced a debate in the Houses of Parliament.

Last July, the European Commission published their proposals for a new Common Fisheries Policy, which included recommendations for a discard ban. Unfortunately that doesn’t guarantee that the law will actually change - and if it does it will be sometime before the new Policy becomes law.

Anyway back to mackerel. Last year Iceland unilaterally increased its allowance for catching mackerel to nearly 157,000 tonnes - up from almost zero in 2006 - and the Faroes upped their catch quota six-fold, to 150,000 tonnes.

The increases have sparked widespread concern about the sustainability of mackerel stocks - the International Council for Exploration of the Sea recently warned that overfishing of mackerel stocks must not continue.  So unless things change future generations of rod and line angler, like me, may be unable to take a mackerel home for breakfast.

A longer wait for the mackerel to bite in future ?

What can you do ?

Find out about Hugh’s Fish Fight at http://www.fishfight.net/
 Join Hugh's Fish Fight on Facebook or follow on Twitter.

More information
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/feb/24/fishing-skippers-fined-illegal-catches

http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/people/big-interviews/maria-damanaki-im-the-enemy-of-irresponsibility/229063.article?redirCanon=1

The REAL big issue

Obesity was back in the news again last week as celebrities and academics called for the Government to retain cooking classes in the national curriculum. 


In an eloquent statement Liverpool footballer Steven Gerrard was quoted as being "particularly concerned about the impact of poor diet, nutrition and lack of physical activity in young people, especially in communities with high social and economic deprivation."  I think this sums things up very well !

We need to see the back of obesity ?

Apparently around one in four adults in the UK is now classified as overweight and I was amazed to discover that 8,800 people had weight loss surgery in the UK in 2010-11. The UK is the 'fattest' country in Europe. The number of obese adults is forecast to rise by 73% over the next 20 years to 26 million people, resulting in several million extra cases of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

OECD - past and predicted overweight rates

Tour the shelves of any of the big supermarkets and you'll have little trouble in filling up a  trolley-load that is guaranteed to bring a bulge to your waist-line and clog-up your arteries. 


Unfortunately while Government ministers are keen to talk about the need for "efficiencies" in NHS spending they seem reluctant to reduce health problems and costs by acting decisively on the root cause of them. Their latest pronouncement on obesity involves a "pledge" that the food producers and retailers can sign up to if they so wish. The press release can't disguise the reality that its not much more than an opportunity for the big players to launch some new "low calorie" brands, which will no doubt be more expensive than their "normal" calorie range.


What have politicians really done to address the food industry's penchant for flogging high fat, sugary food to the masses ? Nothing that I'm aware of. Could it be that some of them have  pretty close ties with said food industry and the supermarkets in particular ?


So Department of Health how about some genuine action to help reshape our citizens for the better?  Lets have legislation to force supermarkets and other major food retailers to remove the most unhealthy products, make unhealthy food more expensive and for starters compel them to make the labelling of food products clearer and consistent ?



Want to know more ?
Department of Health Obesity page
OECD Obesity and the economics of prevention
Healthhabits How fat is your country ?
NHS choices - Obesity

Fares fair ?

I've recently become a blogging widow - so I thought I'd try it for myself. We'll see how it goes - but please don't expect to find any fancy stuff here. 


You will find some politics and a bit of campaigning stuff as I haven't completely lost my desire to change the world, its just become a little bit more random and occasionally eccentric as I enter "Grumpy Old Man" territory.


Anyway, recently I found my way to one of my favourite places - Plymouth - to see my adopted favourite football Club, Plymouth Argyle. It was a vital game for Argyle and the result, a 1-1 draw against Oxford Utd, with other results going the right way, secured Argyle's place in the Football League. 


It was a very enjoyable journey too. Car to Axminster, then train to Exeter, change for Plymouth. The rail journey included a stretch alongside the Exe estuary and then right along the shoreline at Dawlish. I thought it was superb value at £9.50 return. I was happy to "let the train take the strain", as the old marketing line used to say. In fact although I'm an infrequent rail traveller, a rail journey is something I almost always enjoy.

Exe Estuary - courtesy Devon-explorer.co.uk

I'm obviously not alone as according to First Great Western, travel on their lines has increased by over 80% since privatisation. They also claim that growth in timetables means that services on branch lines have increased faster in the south-west than anywhere else in the UK.


However all this good news could come grinding to a halt, or even into reverse fairly shortly. The Government has announced a review of rail fares. Prices for most tickets will already be 24% more expensive by 2015 than they are now.

Axminster station

I believe that its essential that prices are kept down if the growth in rail travel and the many benefits it offers are to be sustained. 


Timely then to include a link here to the Department of Transport's fare review consultation. If you want to know a bit of background its also worth a visit to the website of the Campaign for Better Public Transport, who are running a "fares fair" campaign.


"All aboard" and see you next time !