As the world’s population topped 7 billion people on Monday, Professor Harald Kryvi said something needed to be done to counter the strain on the environment.

“There are two things we need to do — We must dare to discuss the problems that come from population growth, and we must provide (birth control) to areas where growth is biggest,” Kryvi told newspaper Bergens Tidende.

The professor points to the large-scale stripping of resources and climate change as warning signs that there are too many people on Earth.

“People talk about the effects of climate change. They don’t talk about the cause,” he said.

Politicians, he warned, were too fearful of “religious leaders” to begin talking about the need for more contraception in some parts of the world.

To set an example, Norwegians should not have more than two children, he said.

Norway’s burgeoning oil industry, meanwhile, openly cites population growth as the primary reason for its healthy economic outlook, as well as the need to produce more petroleum.