Costing The Earth

2013 is predicted to see the biggest baby boom in 40 years. Whether it's the Royal baby or an after effect of the Olympics nobody is certain. But what does this mean for the planet? Dr Alice Roberts, who is herself expecting, finds out whether population really is the biggest threat to our environment. The UK really is bucking the trend. In the US fears of a baby bust are coupled to predictions of economic decline. These are after all tiny unborn consumers. This is perhaps why many eminent nature watchers from David Attenborough to James Lovelock believe that over population is the biggest threat to our planet. No one can predict what a sustainable number of people would be but many agree that the predicted 10 billion plus is too many. At least, that is, if global rates of consumption increase to Western levels. George Monbiot points out that most growth in population is in the developing world where carbon footprints are often negligible. Paradoxically the key to lowering the birth rate is higher standards o