archived-news

At the TEDGlobal conference this week, Matt Ridley, a rational optimist stated that humans are the only species that get more prosperous as its population increases.  Ridley went on to say that there are three times more people on the planet than there were in the 1950s, but people are three times more prosperous.

Some of the world’s greatest minds are brought together at this conference to present various new and innovative ideas.  Among all of the presenters, Ridley’s point was groundbreaking and his demonstration presented the major reality against the “overpopulation” myth. 

TEDGlobal, which gets its name from the first letters of the words technology, entertainment and design, is an organisation built upon creativity and truth. Founded in 1984, it has become a globally recognised brand and probably the best-known forum for new ideas, mostly because it has spread through the internet.  Its past speakers includes Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Bill Gates and Gordon Brown. Everyone at the TEDGlobal conference is a CEO, an entrepreneur, an innovator, an artist or the head of an NGO.

The essential message of this year’s TEDGlobal annual conference was, “The future is bright.”  The future is bright, as it has always been, simply because human beings retain the capacity to resolve our problems, no matter how impossible they may seem. 

Mr. Ridley’s point conveying that the human population is the only species that actually gets more prosperous as its numbers increase is honestly earth shattering.  There is constant hysteria these days regarding “population control” and claims that the population is having negative effects on the balance of nature.  A 2005 report of the EU Commission entitled Confronting Demographic Change highlighted the plummeting birth rates across Europe which, experts fear, will bring growth and prosperity crashing to a halt.  The UN, in a 2009 report, also warned that the number of elderly people worldwide will outnumber children for the first time in 2045.  With a shortage of children being born, what is to be said about the future of the economy, jobs, pensions, and the world? 

Europe promises jobs with the passage of the Lisbon Treaty, but how can that be true when population is decreasing, thus becoming less prosperous?