Many people believe that the world already has too many people. They claim that the solution to this is birth control - where a man and woman choose to limit how many kids they have. Most people in rich countries have about 2 kids so the number of people in these countries isn't growing much. It's people in poor countries who have too many kids, they say. So the rich countries don't have a problem. Right?

Wrong! The problem is that people in rich countries use far more than their fair share of things like fuel, food and anything else you can think of. A rich kid will eat and buy stuff which poor kids can only dream about. How do you feel about that? Would you believe

• there are still over 12 countries where about half the people have to survive on less than $1 each day? [1].
• the richest 20% of people spend 86% of the world's wealth [2].

1. State of the World's Children 2000, UNICEF
2. New Scientist, 27/4/02, 30.