Expert Says World Population Growth Will Result in Environmental Disaster

An American population expert yesterday predicted that ecological disaster would result from man's inability to cope with the world's increasing population.

Dr. Jarold Kieffer, an assistant administrator for the Agency for International Development (AID), told a Center for Population Studies seminar that countries such as India had passed the point of being able to plan for future increases.

"India is doing everything it can to just stay even with its population, but it's a losing race," Kieffer said.

Kieffer, connected with the population and humanitarian assistance division of AID, said Congressional cutbacks were reducing AID's ability to assist countries in developing methods of population control.

Contraceptive Research

"The cost for contraceptives alone is going to reach $200 million dollars in the next few years," Kieffer said. "There isn't $200 million in the whole population program," he said.

He said research is being conducted on a new method of birth control, the Intra-Uterine Membrane (IUM). The IUM is a soft plastic membrane that will not puncture the uterine wall, as the IUD sometimes does. "The real test is yet to come--whether or not it prevents pregnancy," he said.