‘Growth-ists’ are killing the planet

Why are we not surprised? CO2 emissions will continue to rise for as long as the world’s political and business leaders continue to ignore the elephant in the room – over-population – despite the fact that the creature is now trumpeting loudly. How can anyone possibly expect CO2 emissions to fall? How can they expect demand for pangolins, shark fin and Siam rosewood to plummet, forests and fish stocks to miraculously recover, when the global population is forecast to increase by almost 50 per cent by the end of the century? Population is the independent variable that no one will question, that no one will attempt to influence, in the equation that predicts environmental collapse.
The planet is being held hostage to the “growth-ists”, namely the political-business establishment, who refuse to entertain any measures that will inhibit growth. Who are the growth-ists? Look at the photos in the business section of your newspaper and you will find them. There they stand, bodies angled to the camera, arms folded, heads back, staring down their noses at you with expressions of supercilious contempt. “Growth is good, greed is good, the planet is heading down the toilet but we don’t bloody care,” they seem to be saying.
The next United Nations “kicking-the-can-down-the-road” exercise is scheduled for Katowice, Poland, at the end of the year when the handwringers will finalise their supposed “operating manual” for executing the Paris Agreement. Don’t hold your breath. This document will be as ineffectual, delusional and fatuous as Theresa May’s “Chequers” plan for Brexit.
Eric Bahrt (Have Your Say, October 17) warned us that we need to cut back our consumption of meat by at least 90 per cent to curb climate change. Wrong, Eric. We need to cut the world’s population 
by 90 per cent and then we can eat all 
the meat we want without agonising over it.
Nigel Pike
Phang Nga