Lester R. Brown Quotes

… compared to circumstances where the birth rate remains high—a decline in fertility from high to low levels allows a population to save and invest more, both in terms of human capital (ie education and training) and in terms of physical capital (eg roads, factories, machinery.)

One problem in Africa has been a small population. And the natural resources were large. So you could be as foolish as possible. But you didn’t die. You just remained there eating mangoes and bananas. Now the population in Africa is growing. So the idea that you can go on with idiotic policies is not sustainable. Because a big population needs answers.

Education is the only way forward in Latin America and developing countries in general.

Today, being the biggest developing countries in the world, China and India are both committed to developing their economy and raising their people's living standards.

Family planning is the only exit point of the land problem. No other solution is possible.

Demography, not democracy, will be the most critical factor for security and growth in the 21st century. Booming populations are a drag on developing countries, and low fertility rates are sapping growth in developed societies.

India, China, and Latin America have a tremendous stake in the people's century. As their masses learn to read and write, and as they become productive mechanics, their standard of living will double and treble.

The primary task of developing countries is to develop the economy and eradicate poverty. Without economic growth, there would be no material basis for a better life or better environment for the people. But economic growth must not be achieved at the cost of environment or resources. In the absence of proper resource and environmental protection, there could be no sustainable economic development.

Development has to rise if population is going to increase, Otherwise people will starve and all kinds of other problems.

Developing nations want to become developed nations.

Romania is still very much underutilizing its natural and human potential.

The root cause of the looming energy problem - and the key to easing environmental, economic and religious tensions while improving public health - is to address the unending, and unequal, growth of the human population. And the one proven way to reduce fertility rates is to empower young women by educating them.

The good news is world population growth rate decreases systematically and is expected to reach zero by 2050, thanks to urbanisation and women's education.

Social services, not wealth per se, seem to be the key to lower birth rates. The Chinese, although among the poorest peoples of the world, have brought their fertility rate down to 2.4, partly by social coercion, but mostly by broadly available education, health care and family planning.

You cannot blame the mismanagement of the economy or the fact that we have not invested adequately in education in order to give our people the knowledge, the skills and the technology that they need in order to be able to use the resources that Africa has to gain wealth.

At the same time, we are keenly aware that China is still the largest developing country in the world and we need to make long and hard efforts if we are to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects and basically achieve modernization.

Global poverty is falling faster today than at any time in human history.

In order to stabilize human population growth, we must prioritize the education of girls, the empowerment of women, the provision of ubiquitous access to the knowledge and techniques of fertility management, and the continued raising of child survival rates.

As nations continue to develop they will require more, not less, total energy; their industrialization and rapidly growing populations will depend on it.

The idea that only a limited number of people can live in a country is profound illusion. It all depends on their cooperative and inventive power.

To ensure a healthier and more abundant world, we simply must slow the world’s explosive growth in population.

Zero population growth ….

Pollution and the exhaustion of natural resources depend and will depend in the future on the absolute level of total economic activity. This means that is necessary to restrain both the rate of growth of population and, at least in the developed countries, the rate of growth of consumption per head.

Debt relief without the opening of markets will not relieve third world countries from their poverty.

No technical solution can rescue us from the misery of overpopulation. Freedom to breed will bring ruin to all.