A Population Policy for Zimbabwe Rhodesia

Abstract

Few national leaders have systematically attempted to determine how many people their countries can carry at a specified level of food and energy consumption. We all know that we live in a world of finite energy supplies and where food scarcity threatens to become commonplace. We all know that nearly every developing country in the world, including Zimbabwe Rhodesia, has an unacceptaly high rate of human population growth. We all know that signs of stress on the world's principal biological systems and energy resources indicate that in many places they have already reached the breaking point. Yet in spite of this, very few national leaders have had the courage to overcome religious and political difficulties and put forward a declared Population Policy that defines an optimum population size for the country concerned that will be compatible with available resources, at the same time enhancing the quality of existence of people of all income groups.