ABSTRACT
The major problems facing the world today are often thought of as being those posed by the manufacture, possession and threat of nuclear armaments. Yet it would not be right to regard these as of sole paramount importance to humanity at this time. Our greatest problem, the more serious in that we are slow to acknowledge it, is that of excessive population growth in relation to the development of the earth’s resources. The world’s population problem is not new, but during this century it has become more widely known and its measurement more refined and more complete, thanks to such agencies as the United Nations statistical departments. With this greater and more accurate knowledge has come the realisation of the growing seriousness of the problems posed by the rapid increase in human numbers. The manifestation of the problem is growing poverty in certain parts of the world where human increase exceeds that of the development of resources (although it must be appreciated that at the same time in other parts of the world some peoples also increasing in numbers are growing steadily richer). The prospect of the rapid spread and worsening of this situation is before us. The middle years of this century have seen the growth of a social conscience among the better-off nations and greater international co-operation; no longer are eyes closed to the periodic famines that take toll of great populations in South-east Asia.
