Philip Mountbatten

Philip Mountbatten  link (British royal)
Born	Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark 10 June 1921 Mon Repos, Corfu, Kingdom of Greece
Died	9 April 2021 Windsor, England
Nationality	UK
Alma mater	Gordonstoun School,Salem Castle School
Religion	Church of England
Spouse	Elizabeth Windsor
Interests	population reduction
"I am tempted to ask for reincarnation as a particularly deadly virus."

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

Activities

Mountbatten founded the Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme in 1956.

Opinions

Overpopulation

He expressed concerns about overpopulation in interviews and writing. {{#subobject: |Has superobject=Philip Mountbatten |Has objectClass=Quotation |Has author=Philip Mountbatten|+sep=,

|Has text=“Human population growth is probably the single most serious long-term threat to survival. We’re in for a major disaster if it isn’t curbed—not just for the natural world, but for the human world. The more people there are, the more resources they’ll consume, the more pollution they’ll create, the more fighting they’ll do. We have no option. If it isn’t controlled voluntarily, it will be controlled involuntarily by an increase in disease, starvation and war.

Can you give me an example?

I was in Sri Lanka recently, where a United Nations project set out in the late 1940s to eradicate malaria. It’s an island and it was therefore possible to destroy the mosquito carrying the disease. What people didn’t realize was that malaria was actually controlling the growth of the population. The consequence was that within about 20 years the population doubled. Now they’ve got to find something for all those people to do and some way to feed them.” |Is about=Philip Mountbatten,overpopulation, war, disease, starvation|+sep=, |Has wikipediaPage= |Has location=|+sep=, |Has publicationDate=December 21, 1981 |Sourced from= |Has sourceDetails=https://people.com/archive/vanishing-breeds-worry-prince-philip-but-not-as-much-as-overpopulation-vol-16-no-25/ |Has sourceTitle= |Has sourceName= |Has sourceURL= }}

“Human population growth is probably the single most serious long-term threat to survival. We’re in for a major disaster if it isn’t curbed—not just for the natural world, but for the human world. The more people there are, the more resources they’ll consume, the more pollution they’ll create, the more fighting they’ll do. We have no option. If it isn’t controlled voluntarily, it will be controlled involuntarily by an increase in disease, starvation and war.

Can you give me an example?

I was in Sri Lanka recently, where a United Nations project set out in the late 1940s to eradicate malaria. It’s an island and it was therefore possible to destroy the mosquito carrying the disease. What people didn’t realize was that malaria was actually controlling the growth of the population. The consequence was that within about 20 years the population doubled. Now they’ve got to find something for all those people to do and some way to feed them.”
Philip Mountbatten (December 21, 1981) 

{{#subobject: |Has superobject=Philip Mountbatten |Has objectClass=Quotation |Has author=Philip Mountbatten|+sep=, |Has text=“I just wonder what it would be like to be reincarnated in an animal whose species had been so reduced in numbers than it was in danger of extinction. What would be its feelings toward the human species whose population explosion had denied it somewhere to exist… I must confess that I am tempted to ask for reincarnation as a particularly deadly virus.” |Is about=Philip Mountbatten,overpopulation, virus|+sep=, |Has wikipediaPage= |Has location=|+sep=, |Has publicationDate=1987 |Sourced from= |Has sourceDetails=http://archive.today/2019.09.04-225141/https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Prince_Philip,_Duke_of_Edinburgh |Has sourceTitle= |Has sourceName= |Has sourceURL=

}}

“I just wonder what it would be like to be reincarnated in an animal whose species had been so reduced in numbers than it was in danger of extinction. What would be its feelings toward the human species whose population explosion had denied it somewhere to exist… I must confess that I am tempted to ask for reincarnation as a particularly deadly virus.”
Philip Mountbatten (1987) 

Gun control

On the occurence of the 1996 Dunblane school massacre he spoke against tighter gun ownership regulation, but did so with a simile that struck people as insensitive.

References