A UU Sermon on Sustainable Numbers
Channel: A Quaker Speaks
Date: 16/01/2019

In the long run, our prosperity, freedoms, and peace, are controlled by a race between our population and our ability to support that population. Failures degrade our quality of life predictably. This is the population-cycle model of civilization.
        
        Instead, we could give tomorrow’s children the sustainable world that they deserve. Four steps would start us toward this goal, this dream of ancient sages. 1. Unplanned conception rates that now hover around 50% should be reduced. 2. Contraceptives should be universally available to those who want them despite inability to pay. 3. Pay-as-you-go economics should replace Ponzi-scheme economics. 4. And we should institutionalize deliberate planning so that human numbers will never again outrun our ability to support those numbers.