The world¹s population is increasing. It has increased since the beginning of time. What varies over time are rates of increase and areas of high and low population growth. Historically projections for the past 50 years have been overestimates. UN estimates for 2050 range from 7.3 billion to 10.7 billion. There is a huge margin of error because rates are so volatile.

'Population explosion¹ and *population time bomb¹ were apocalyptic phrases coined in the 1970s by advocates of a *population control¹ agenda. Supporters of this view include: Marie Stopes International, Population Concern*, the International Planned Parenthood Federation *(IPPF) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). (* Major contributors to China¹s now discredited *one child per couple policy¹.)

The following are in favour of population control and endorse the widespread provision of abortion services and systematic sterilisation programmes (backed by transnational pharmaceutical firms): United Nations Children¹s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), World Bank, World Health Organisation (WHO). Most of the activity of these organisations is in the developing world. The Holy See¹s observer at the UN, Archbishop Renato Martino has recently expressed concern at ³a shift by western powers away from development issues into population control and contraception².

Low birth rates emerge as a by-product of other social changes, particularly improvements in the status of women, increasing prosperity, better education and social security. The spectacularly low birth rates in prosperous European countries would tend to support this.

Western materialism makes far more demands on the planet¹s physical resources than the populations of the developing world. The USA has less than 7% of the world¹s population but uses one third of its raw materials. The wealthiest 20% of the population consume 70 times more than the poorest 20%.

A 1995 London School of Economics report stated: ³Research does not support the idea that world population growth is currently out pacing food production². Although world population has doubled since the 1950s, world food supplies have trebled.

While the global poor see children as a blessing and a gift from God, increasingly secular and materialistic western societies view them as a threat to adult earning power and freedom, leading to *anti-natalist¹ societies that see children as *career-breaks¹ or expensive *accessories¹. As Bishop Charles Buckle from Ghana has said: ³Any child that God allows to be born has a mission, a vocation, and it is our duty to make sure that this child answers the vocation that God has for it, and fulfils the mission for which he or she came into the world. No person has been allowed to be born by God to become a burden. Each one is an asset.²