A letter on overpopulation from today’s The Age – somewhat unusually it got highlighted!
Time to tackle a troubling taboo: population control
Now that the severity, urgency and gravity of the climate change situation has been revealed by Professor Garnaut, and the consequential extreme cuts required, it surely makes no sense in politicians encouraging Australian population growth to upwards of 50 million by 2050. More importantly, a world population of 9.5 billion by the same time is flirting with calamity.
Even if climate change were contained to a global temperature rise of two degrees by 2050, it isn’t going to restore rainfall patterns as they were. It isn’t going to address excessive land clearing. It isn’t going to address over-utilisation of replenishable resources. Climate change discussions have no scope to address or take into account sustainability, and while civilisation is predicated on more and more consumption based on an ever larger population, then the future is pretty bleak.
Climate change is the tip of the iceberg, as replenishable resources, food, housing and energy become less able to service an ever increasing global population. Our political leaders must wake up to themselves and stop treating population control and reduction as a taboo as time is running out. We have one earth and all innocent bystanders will pay the price of the greedy minority.
– Tony Smith, Burwood
