Rumour has it that Tony Leon is leaving the DA to start a new party called the Neo-Malthusians. Its founding credo aims to make all South Africans rich because poor people take up too much space, eat too much food and drink too much water.
The new party is inspired by the ideas of political economist Thomas Malthus, who in 1798 postulated that high fertility among the poor was responsible for stripping the Earth’s resources. Malthusianism was popular among the middle and professional classes of the time, who viewed social welfare as a dangerous incentive for the poor to “breed” more.
In the past century, Malthus’s ideas have found favour among colonialists who aimed to solve the “restless native problem” by curtailing their numbers; right-wing Americans who support the view that Anglo-Protestant culture is being overwhelmed by Latino immigrants; and right-wing environmentalists who argue that population growth among the poor is the cause of environmental destruction.
News of Leon’s defection to Malthusianism arose after he publicly implied that only rich people are good for the environment. “Rich people are good for the environment: they have fewer children, they can afford cleaner, efficient technologies, they use resources more efficiently, they don’t chop down trees for firewood, they don’t kill wild animals for food and they have the time and the money to enjoy and protect nature,” he said in a speech at the Oxford Debating Union in London.
Leon must have been ignorant of the oft-repeated statistic that the United States, which has 4% of the world’s population, is responsible for a quarter of all greenhouse gases. Or of the Stern Review, released in the United Kingdom earlier last week, which pointed out that wealthy nations do the most damage to the environment, while developing nations bear the heaviest brunt of the resulting degradation.
Way back in 1972 a European think tank called the Club of Rome released a report concluding that rapid economic growth would lead to the exhaustion of the Earth’s resources within a century. Titled The Limits to Growth, it viewed overpopulation as a major problem, but said environmental degradation was not solely due to the unruly poor. The rapacity and overconsumption of the rich were largely to blame — in fact, 20% of the world’s population was responsible for consuming 80% of the world’s resources, the report concluded.
The Neo-Malthusians may be unaware of these statistics. It’s more likely they believe that if there are no more poor people, the rich can consume all of the world’s resources, not just a lousy 80%.
Viva Malthus! Viva Leon!
Fiona Macleod is the M&G’s environmental reporter