What a silly article! Straw men are so easy to kill.
Perhaps if the author represented the views of people instead of the rare extremists it would have some value.
Why did a whole generation stop breeding? How about aggressive economic policy that made it untenable to do so without dramatic lifestyle loss.

Malcolm King's idea that global problems are entirely due to overconsumption should also be debunked. Overconsumption is real enough, but even if it completely stopped tomorrow, the average global citizen would still be poor. People have worked out from environmental footprints how many earths would be required to give everyone on earth the same standard of living as the average standard of living of any particular country. This graph from the 6/10/2007 New Scientist magazine shows that the resources of three earths would be required to give everyone a modest Western European standard of living. See

http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/archive/2624/26243101.jpg

That is just for the existing population, not the 9 or 12 billion that we could get in the future.

The y-axis shows the UN Human Development Index values for the different countries and regions on the graph. This is a measure of human well-being, based on life expectancy, literacy, etc. It indicates that almost no countries are giving their people decent lives on am average level of consumption much below that of Europe. Cuba seems to be an exception, but the severe austerity and high degree of authoritarian control also have to be recognised.

Did Malcolm visit

http://www.population.org.au/

??

You people are like addicts going back to the opium den for more. You just can't keep away can you? Go on - I dare you. Revisit the article once more and write an asinine comment. You know you want to. Here come the bearded gnomes - there go equanimity and reason.

"Revisit the article once more and write an asinine comment."

I think it high time the population growth zealots stopped using Comical Ali as a role model. While his wit and charm are a worthy aspiration and would be a welcome change, I feel that emulating his rhetoric is far too ambitious.

A human chook pen isn't my Utopia.

Cheryl, perhaps for you it is not opium, but pot - as in the pot calling the kettle black? But I will leave the last word for you.