Golden age problems
Sir: Johan Norberg’s ‘Our golden age’ (20 August) is absolutely right — we do live in a golden age; antibiotics still work, we have less starvation, the world is open for trade, with all its benefits. But there is a fly in the ointment: human overpopulation. Global warming (if you believe in it), degradation of the environment, extinction of species, all are consequences of it. It is a result, in fact, of our success. The only country to have grasped the nettle — China — is now having second thoughts. Perhaps wind and solar power can provide for our needs when we are 70 million in these islands; but what when we are 80 million, 90, 100? And for the rest of the world?
W.G. Sellwood
Stafford
Dollops of perspective
Sir: Johan Norberg’s triumphant article on the state of the world is a sublime dollop of perspective. The liberal international order established after the second world war has, for seven decades, brought unprecedented peace and prosperity to countless millions.
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