Beckhams’ large brood is ‘bad example’ for the planet

The champagne may be flowing at Beckingham palace, but environmentalists will not be toasting the birth of Harper Seven. Leading green campaigners, including Green Party leader Caroline Lucas and Sir David Attenborough have urged the UK to have a sensible debate on population. Parents of three or four children have been called selfish by the UK-based Optimum Population Trust (OPT).

Sir David Attenborough said about population growth: "The sooner we stabilise our numbers the sooner we stop running up the down escalator.

"Fifty years ago there were about 3 billion people on Earth. Now there are almost 7 billion – almost double – and every one of them needing space. There cannot be more people on this Earth than can be fed", he said.

Lucas told the Guardian (17 July): "We need to have a far greater public debate about population, whether it focuses on improving family planning or reducing global inequality – and looking again at how we address the strain on our natural resources. The absence of an open and honest discussion about this issue means most people don't give much thought to the scale of global population growth in recent years.

"We live as if we have three planets instead of just one. It is interesting that public figures, environmental groups and NGOs in general have tended to steer away from population to the extent that it's become a taboo issue. The horrific consequences of China's one-child policy and of other draconian efforts to regulate procreation have, for many, rendered discussion of the subject completely unpalatable. Yet as long as an issue remains a taboo subject where no one talks about it, then there's very little chance of finding the solutions we need."

The UN predict that world population will reach 7 billion any day soon and this could potentially could double to 14 billion by 2100 if action is not taken. The OPT argues that UK parents should only receive child benefit and tax credits for the first two children and that we must dramatically reduce teenage pregnancy rates.

OPT chief executive Simon Ross said: "That would send a clear signal that the government will support sustainable families, but after that you are on your own," he said. "There is a big issue there, family planning is cheap, yet many people don't use it properly and accidental pregnancy rates are very high. We need to change the incentives to make the environmental case that one or two children are fine but three or four are just being selfish.

"The Beckhams, and others like London mayor Boris Johnson, are very bad role models with their large families. There's no point in people trying to reduce their carbon emissions and then increasing them 100% by having another child," he said. "England is one of the most densely populated countries in the world and the fastest-growing in population terms in Europe. In 15 years we'll have an extra 10 million people here."

Lucas argued that access to birth control is a human right. She said: "Policies that focus on increasing access to birth control for all who want it, reducing poverty and inequality, improving food security and tackling environmental degradation are where we should be focusing our attention.

"At its heart, this is a debate about poverty and inequality, as well as about sustainability – and we believe that strong policies to reduce the yawning gulf between rich and poor should underpin every effort to address it.

"I don't believe that government incentives or laws to that effect are what we need. As a richer country, we face different challenges when it comes to population than those in the developing world, where high birth rates are linked to dire poverty and inequality. It's an equally important issue for both richer and poorer nations – this is a global debate which affects us all," she said.