ENVISIONING A WORLD OF WANTED CHILDREN

Robert Engelman

Imagine a world in which almost every pregnancy is the happy out come of a conscious decision to bring a new human being into the world. This equation, if accompanied by decent educational and economic opportunities for women as well as men, could guarantee a world population that reaches a peak--perhaps as low as 7.5 billion souls--in this century. The world's population then would either level off or gradually diminish for generations to come.

Will this be a loveless world of single children without extended families, the "little emperors" said to strut the streets of urban China today? Not remotely. Families of three or more children are compatible with societies whose overall fertility have reached the critical "replacement level" of roughly 2 children per couple. So many women and men chose to have one or no children that there will be room for diversity in family size. And there is no evidence that children without siblings are unloved or unloving.

Affording large families, however, may not be easy. Sustainable societies will choose to pay more for those commodities that incur significant environmental costs--fossil fuels, for example, or fresh water, or wood from old-growth forests. Such fees will be high enough to dampen environmentally damaging consumption, which means the revenue generated not only will spur the transition to sustainable energy and material use, but will contribute to the reduction of poverty as well.

Income credits or other income-based strategies will narrow today's growing paging inequalities of wealth and income while still discouraging activities that contribute to water scarcity, climate change, waste disposal, and the extinction of species. Parents will weigh more carefully than ever before each decision to bear children. Whatever their freely chosen family size and timing, they will cherish each child. Both reproduction ad consumption will be more modest in scale, yet also more intentional and appreciated--ultimately allowing a new and enduring harmony among human beings and between humanity and nature.

Robert Engelman is Population Action International's Vice President for Research. Reprinted with permission from Enough! newsletter #10, Center for a New American Dream. From Pop!ulation Press vol 6, # 1, Jan/Feb 2000.