Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Population asset

Once before when worries about how the world might cope with population growth were to the fore a distinguished welfare economist remarked that he thought it possible that there was more welfare in India than in the UK.

My – and others - immediate reaction was surely not, how can that be true?

But then I thought about oceans.

The Mediterranean is undoubtedly much warmer than the North Atlantic. But which contains the more heat, or at least more energy?

The Radio 4 programme New Global Indians is examining how the interchange between India & the rest of the world – through its people – is affecting that balance of welfare, that turning of energy into heat.

And, as one of the contributors said: Population was once considered our biggest problem, now it’s our biggest asset.