Of course there are too many people – the world’s population is growing by 83 million people every year. So why did the Triple Helix Society organise a panel debate on the issue?

Fred Pearce, Environment Editor at The Guardian, explained why the issue isn’t quite so simple. "Each birth in the US causes 200 times more climate-related environmental damage than each birth in Ethiopia", he remarked. Furthermore, if the population of the globe today all enjoyed the same standard of living as in the UK, we would need four Earths to sustain us. Such shocking statistics peppered the debate.

Ludi Simpson, Professor of Population Studies at Manchester, kicked off proceedings by shunning responsibility. "Overpopulation is not a demographic concept", he began, "it is really a moral debate." Nevertheless, he claimed that, "population is more and more within our abilities to manage."

Professor Guillebaud, Emeritus Professor of Family Planning at UCL, works tirelessly to educate people about family planning and contraception. His ‘orgasms without babies’ slide was met with titters from the audience. Professor David Coleman, a demographer at Oxford, took a more measured approach, suggesting that "we don’t need to define an optimum population to realise that overpopulation is an issue".

In fact, total fertility rate – the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime – has fallen from around 5 to 2.5 globally over recent years, whilst replacement fertility rate, one that is needed to ensure that the population remains constant, is only around 2.3. Guillebaud believes there is a battle to be fought. "There is demographic momentum in many countries; it will take another 60 years to reach a stable global population", he explained.

Pearce, took a different stance. "Rising consumption is a far bigger threat than rising head count", he argued, "the population bomb is being diffused around the world, but we haven’t even begun to diffuse the consumption bomb". If he has got it right, then the real elephant in the room is not overpopulation at all – it’s overconsumption.