Is OPT a development organisation or an environmental organisation?
That is a question to which we cannot give a simple answer. As our main objective is to help bring about a situation where the option of a good quality of life is available worldwide, we are clearly in favour of ‘development’. However, we are very much aware of ecological limits. Until a balance is achieved between human numbers and natural resources, we do not believe that the major human – and environmental – problems can be solved. Millions of people will continue to starve and/or live in squalor and/or die in resource wars and/or die from preventable illness and/or suffer from appalling poverty and/or suffer from abuse of human rights. More than 70 million people already die of starvation each year, and 42 million are suffering from AIDs. More people will die. More species will be lost. More carbon will build up in the atmosphere. More rainforests will be destroyed. More air, water and land will be polluted.
