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King Charles can count as well as any of us

None of us needs to be an accountant to appreciate the numbers highlighted by Prince Charles, as he was at the time.

The National President of Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) reflects on an event that rarely happens. And on the contribution at least by way of commentary, to how we might live in some kind of harmonious relationship with the earth that gave us life and sustains us day by day. Jenny Goldie, writes: 

‘Today is the coronation of King Charles III. I happen to be a Republican, nevertheless, I applaud him for saying good things on population despite criticism that the wealthy few don’t have a right to tell the masses who are poor what to do.  In 2010, the then  Prince Charles spoke of the “monumental” problems that face the environment as population numbers “rocket” and traditional societies become more consumerist.

In a lecture to mark the 25th anniversary of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, the Prince told how the population of Lagos in Nigeria had risen from 300,000 to 20 million during his lifetime.

He went on: “I could have chosen Mumbai, Cairo or Mexico City; wherever you look, the world’s population is increasing fast. It goes up by the equivalent of the entire population of the United Kingdom every year. Which means that this poor planet of ours, which already struggles to sustain 6.8 billion people, will somehow have to support over nine billion people within 50 years.”

We have just passed the eight billion mark. In 13 years, another 1.2 billion people were added to the Earth. The burden on “this poor planet of ours” grows ever greater.’