Population Matters for a Sustainable Future, the pro-contraception lobby, is arguing that if less people had been alive when typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines then less people would have been killed and less people would have suffered. The fact that more people have been killed and are suffering – the pro-contraception lobby argue – is down to the Catholic Church’s doctrine on contraception. Population Matters for a Sustainable Future blames the Catholic Church for the extent of the suffering, not typhoon Haiyan.
‘Typhoon Haiyan is a natural phenomenon, though one perhaps exacerbated by climate change.
However, the scale of suffering has been worsened enormously by the five fold increase in the population of the Philippines since 1950, from less than 19 million then to almost 100 million today. (1)
Pressure on space and resources means people are more likely to live in areas vulnerable to storms, such as coastal and low lying areas, where land is cheaper and where they can access fish stocks.
Poverty, to which population growth contributes significantly, means that people cannot afford the sturdy dwellings which can withstand extreme weather events. The sheer numbers of people mean that more suffer when storms do strike and that recovery efforts are that much more difficult. (more...)
Read it and weep:
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