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Wednesday, 24 November 2021

Prince William criticises rapid human birth rate in Africa but why did he have three kids?

Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, is a known wildlife conservationist which is good. He has once again highlighted the increasingly negative impact of human population growth on wildlife conservation. He is focusing on Africa where there is the world's most diverse and beautiful wildlife including many iconic large species and where the human population is on course to double by 2050 to 2.5 billion. That kind of human population growth inevitably leads to a heavy increase in agriculture and commercial enterprises and activities which squeezes out wildlife, essentially due to the destruction of their habitat.

Human birth rate is high in African putting pressure on wildlife
Human birth rate is high in African putting pressure on wildlife. Photo: Pixabay.

William criticised Africa's human population growth in 2017. At that time he condemned the "staggering increase of 3.5 million people per month" in Africa.

A royal-watcher and apparently a critic, Phil Dampier, an author of books on the royal family, tweeted at the time: "If Prince William thinks there are too many people in the world shouldn't he and Kate have stuck to 2 children?"

The problem is this: it isn't only about the human population of Africa increasing as fast as it is which is causing massive problems for the conservation of wildlife on the continent, is also the population growth of developed countries such as the UK. It is the people of developed countries with high consumption of products and foods which drives habitat destruction as forests are cleared for crops to feed UK and European livestock.

The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. Britain needs to place a curb on population growth as well. I think that you'll find, by the way, that certain ethnic minority cultures have much larger families than other cultures and the islands of Great Britain.

And doesn't India need to be introspective and ask if it is time to consider human population growth? The Bengal tiger has for years been squeezed out of India.

RELATED: Human population growth effects on animals.

Prince William is repeating the thoughts of Sir David Attenborough who has had in the past stated that humankind is a kind of disease on the planet. What he meant was that humankind is destroying the planet and as the population of humans grows there is more destruction and it is more difficult to control that destruction. Humankind is operating like a bacterial infection inside a person.

Cop26 is an example of how hard it is to unify the world in one objective even when that objective is saving the planet; saving humankind's home.

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