ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 showed briefly how two pressures — population growth and economic growth — might fit into the general picture of economic failure as a cause of global environmental degradation. There it was suggested that both had the effect of making land conversion more profitable. Combined with the fact that conservation values are often exhibited outside the market, the ‘playing field’ between conservation and land conversion becomes severely biased in favour of conversion. Few experts dispute the role that population growth has in resource degradation, although it is sometimes thought to be ‘politically incorrect5 to argue such a case. There can never be a case for distorting the truth because of political sensitivities. Population growth is a major factor explaining resource degradation. Since the issue was addressed extensively in Blueprint 2 we offer only the briefest discussion of the population-degradation link here.
