Can we finally have a serious talk about population?

I have often talked about population on this blog. It is a controversial and difficult subject to tackle, because of the emotions and reactions it immediately stirs.

This article quotes the man who is said to have destroyed the idea that population was a problem, the Father of the Green Revolution. In his Nobel prize acceptance speech he said,

We have bought the world some time, but unless population control and increased food production go hand in hand, we are going to lose this.

Even those who don’t agree about population might agree with the solution.

So what’s Weisman’s solution? Importantly, he is no supporter of coercive population control measures such as China’s infamous one-child policy. Rather, Weisman makes a powerful case that the best way to manage the global population is by empowering women, through both education and access to contraception — so that they can make more informed choices about family size and the kind of lives they want for themselves and their children.

via Can we finally have a serious talk about population? | Grist.