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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Letters

The future of life on Earth depends on curbing overpopulation

The dugong is now functionally extinct in China due to hunting and loss of habitat, according to the Zoological Society of London and Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The dugong is now functionally extinct in China due to hunting and loss of habitat, according to the Zoological Society of London and Chinese Academy of Sciences. Photograph: Patrick Louisy/ZSL/PA

Leading scientists state that the huge scale of “human-driven” loss of species demands urgent action. They are right. But your article (Animal populations experience average decline of almost 70% since 1970, report reveals, 13 October) fails to reference a key driver of biodiversity loss – the continuing unsustainable growth of our own human population – and the need to address it, among other factors, to reverse the trend.

We are using up the renewable resources of 1.7 Earths. If things don’t change, we’ll need three by 2050. As more of us demand more from nature, we worsen already catastrophic biodiversity loss, accelerating water scarcity, pollution and deforestation.

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