From The Current Issue Of Private Eye

[Hymie]

‘The world population is now 6.7bn, roughly double what is was when I was born. If I live to be in my mid-eighties, then it will have trebled within my lifetime....I simply cannot understand why no one discusses this impending calamity, and why no world statesmen have the guts to treat the issue with the seriousness it deserves. How the hell can we witter on about tackling global warming, and reducing consumption, when we are continuing to add so relentlessly to the number of consumers? The answer is politics, and political cowardice....we seem to have given up on population control.’
Boris Johnson, Daily Telegraph, 25 October 2007

(Earlier this week, Boris’s wife announced that she is pregnant with his 7th child – this helpful info is from Hymie, not PE)

[douglas9401]

None so blind as the one-eyed trouser snake.

[Spicerack]

How would you go about reducing the world population, hymie?

[royfromaus]

He probably doesn't care about it.

Just another anti-Boris rant.

[Untitled]

Overpopulation is not the whole story... if 8 billion are capable of living sustainably then there's no problem... the issue is that a relatively small fraction of the world population overconsumes our planet's resources to a degree that dwarves the rest...

Johnson is a hypocrite... he's estimated to have seven children and never answers when asked how many children he has...

[tomus42]

It's hypocritical to moan about the size of it and then add to it.

No one suggested reducing it.

[Spicerack]

Hymie suggested reducing it as far as I can make out. Hence my question to him.

[Untitled]

There isn't much that can be "done" about current overpopulation... doing nothing about climate change will certainly result in horrifying death figures, of which the countries hit hardest by climate change will contribute the majority. Though that would be an evil and destructive solution...

[Spicerack]

if anyone is serious about this subject, it has nothing to do with 1 individual.
Looks like you were right, roy.

[Untitled]

Johnson obviously wants other peoples reproduction to be controlled not his own... or he doesn't actually believe a word of what he writes and just comes out with whatever he thinks people want to hear... I think the latter is more likely.

[THECORBYLOON]

"All the evidence shows that we can help reduce population growth, and world poverty, by promoting literacy and female emancipation and access to birth control. Isn’t it time politicians stopped being so timid, and started talking about the real number one issue?"

Boris Johnson 2007

[Spicerack]

Sounds right to me, Corby.
Bill Gates thinks reducing disease in poor countries will lower their populations. I know why he thinks it would work. I doubt it would.

[Gromit]

What we could do with is a pandemic. Not the sniffle that is Covid 19.
Better to die from a bad cold than your whole family starving to death :-(

[naomi24]

Douglas at 21.25 for Best Answer. A good joke - like this OP.

[Hymie]

I only posted an item originally published in the Daily Telegraph from 2007, written by Boris Johnson – including information that he is the father of 6, soon to be 7.
I think Boris was suggesting we find some way of reducing the world population.

[ToraToraTora]

".I simply cannot understand why no one discusses this impending calamity," - because we have reached peak child, the population will start to fall.

[ToraToraTora]

https://onefiniteplanet.org/2019/05/25/peak-child/

[dave50]

Not to mention the fact that third world nations will eventually want the same lifestyles as the advanced nations which will increase the demand for energy and finite resources and who's going to tell them they cant have what we have because of climate change?

[DTCwordfan]

that's why Private Eye published it - the juxtaposition which borders on a dollop of hypocrisy on BJ's part.

[Gromit]

Thanks for the link TTT.
Very interesting.

[ToraToraTora]

population will rise a bit more but it will inevitably fall. One big factor is as people get more prosperous they tend to have fewer children. The new problem will be the amount of old people.