Here, speaking for themselves, are Lord Bertrand Russell and
Prince Philip on the need to reduce the world's population ...
by any means.
- Lord Bertrand Russell -
But bad times, you may say, are exceptional, and can be
dealt with by exceptional methods. This has been more or less
true during the honeymoon period of industrialism, but it will
not remain true unless the increase of population can be
enormously diminished. At present the population of the world is
increasing at about 58,000 per diem. War, so far, has had no
very great effect on this increase, which continued through each
of the world wars.... War ... has hitherto been disappointing in
this respect ... but perhaps bacteriological war may prove more
effective. If a Black Death could spread throughout the world
once in every generation, survivors could procreate freely
without making the world too full.... The state of affairs might
be somewhat unpleasant, but what of it? Really high-minded
people are indifferent to happiness, especially other people's.
--{The Impact of Science on Society} (1953)
The white population of the world will soon cease to
increase. The Asiatic races will be longer, and the negroes
still longer, before their birth rate falls sufficiently to make
their numbers stable without help of war and pestilence....
Until that happens, the benefits aimed at by socialism can only
be partially realized, and the less prolific races will have to
defend themselves against the more prolific by methods which are
disgusting even if they are necessary.
--{The Prospects of Industrial Civilization} (1923)
- Prince Philip -
In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to
return as a deadly virus, in order to contribute something to
solve overpopulation.
--Reported by Deutsche Press Agentur (August 1988)
I just wonder what it would be like to be reincarnated in
an animal whose species had been so reduced in numbers that it
was in danger of extinction. What would be its feelings toward
the human species whose population explosion had denied it
somewhere to exist.... I must confess that I am tempted to ask
for reincarnation as a particularly deadly virus.
--Foreword to Fleur Cowles, {If I Were an Animal} (1987)
I don't claim to have any special interest in natural
history, but as a boy I was made aware of the annual
fluctuations in the number of game animals and the need to
adjust the ``cull'' to the size of the surplus
population.
--{Down to Earth} (1988)
``Everyone thinks it's to do with not enough food, but
it's really that demand is too great--too many people. Basically,
it's a little embarrassing for everybody. No one quite knows how
to handle it. Nobody wants their family life to be interfered
with by the government.''
--Philip interview with Britain's TV channel ITV1 on the world
food crisis, aired May 12 and 13, 2008, and quoted in a {Sunday
Times} article on May 11.
We talk about over- and underdeveloped countries; I think
a more exact division might be between underdeveloped and
overpopulated. The more people there are, the more industry and
more waste and the more sewage there is, and therefore the more
pollution.
--Address to Edinburgh University Union (1969)
I realize that there are vital causes to be fought for,
and I sympathize with people who work up a passionate concern
about the all too many examples of inhumanity, injustice, and
unfairness; but behind all this hangs a deadly cloud. Still
largely unnoticed and unrecognized, the process of destroying
our natural environment is gathering speed and momentum. If we
fail to cope with the challenge, the other problems will pale
into insignificance.
--Fairfield Osborne Lecture, New York City (1980) [Fairfield
Osborne, father and son, were leading anti-population activists]
Human population growth is probably the single most
serious long-term threat to survival. We're in for a major
disaster if it isn't curbed--not just for the natural world, but
for the human world. The more people there are, the more
resources they'll consume, the more pollution they'll create,
the more fighting they will do. We have no option. If it isn't
controlled voluntarily, it will be controlled involuntarily by
an increase in disease, starvation and war.
--{People} magazine (1981)
The simple fact is that the human population of the world
is consuming natural renewable resources faster than it can
regenerate, and the process of exploitation is causing even
further damage.... All this has been made possible by the
industrial revolution and the scientific explosion and it is
spread around the world by the new economic religion of
development.
--Address to the Joint Meeting of the All-Party Group on
Population and Development and the All-Party Conservation
Committee in London (1987)
What has been described as the ``balance of nature'' is
simply nature's system of self-limitation. Fertility and
breeding success create the surpluses after allowing for the
replacement of the losses. Predation, climatic variation,
disease, starvation--and in the case of the inappropriately
named Homo sapiens, wars and terrorism--are the principal means
by which population numbers are kept under some sort of control.
Viewed dispassionately, it must be obvious that the world's
human population has grown to such a size that it is threatening
its own habitat; and it has already succeeded in causing the
extinction of large numbers of wild plant and animal
species.
--{Down to Earth} (1988)
There may be disagreements about the time scale, but in
principle there can be little doubt that the population cannot
go on increasing indefinitely. Resources presently being used
will not last for ever and pollution in its broadest sense,
unless severely checked, is bound to increase with population
and industrial activity.
--Address, Salford University Degree Ceremony (1973)