Morning all
Population control is paramount to climate change. But so is control of
consumption. As people enter middle class they adopt an ever-increasing
desire for the trappings that signify their membership of this group. They
have fewer children but they consume more meat and dairy products, and they
buy more imported goods, cars etc. And millions more have adopted such a
life style over the past couple of decades.
People increasingly live in cities, and those cities are often constructed
for cars. Take Palmerston near Darwin - there are whole suburbs without a
supermarket. Public transport? It doesn't really work well with low
density housing which is basically what exists in most of that fast-growing
city. "5 km an hour" architecture? I've not met one politician or
developer, indeed anyone else, who's even heard of it.
And on food security: a 1994 book "Who Will Feed China?" was an eye-opener
for me. Where once our Asian neighbours such as Taiwan, Japan, South Korea,
and China, were self-sufficient in food, that is no longer the case, and a
major reason is that cities tend to be built on agricultural land.
Here in Australia the issue of food security often arises in the form of a
debate over agricultural land being sold to overseas interests. However,
again a much bigger issue should be the amount of agricultural land being
swallowed up by development. And the amount destroyed by overgrazing -
particularly problematic in times of drought - or by weeds such as Gamba
Grass.
Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow
PO Box 71, Darwin River,
NT 0841
043 8650 835
On 26/10/13 9:10 PM, "Graeme Stevens" <> wrote:
> I can but agree with Greg.
> While we should all do our best wherever we can with conservation issues etc,
> I do not understand the lack of focus on human populations and demographics
> (global overpopulation that is).
> Once it was an often discussed topical issue. Ref Paul Ehrlich's "The
> Population Bomb" 1971. "limits to Growth" etc
> What happened? Who killed the debate? Did it become too politically incorrect,
> or are these views now considered irrelevant and dated?
>
> When a politician talks about food security, or the problems of increasing
> "illegal immigration" around the world in response to conflicts (often over
> resources), please give them a quick lesson on root cause analysis and chat
> about what the world will look like when the projected additional 2 billion
> mouths are added in the coming decades.
>
> Graeme Stevens
>
>
>
>
>
>
>> From:
>> Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2013 12:38:03 +1100
>> To:
>> CC:
>> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] The ocean is dead; a yachtsman's tale
>>
>> Whatever. That's just semantics. The point is that we should all do what we
>> can to make them uncomfortable.
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>>> On 23 Oct 2013, at 11:34 am, "Andrew Hobbs" <> wrote:
>>>
>>> It is not a lot of good blaming the politicians. We (collectively) get the
>>> politicians we (collectively) deserve. To a large extent they simply reflect
>>> community values. Sure, some, probably even a majority, are rather gullible
>>> and/or are not very good at critical appraisal of what is actually happening
>>> in the world, the looming crises. Education and publicity might help but I
>>> doubt it. I suspect a much more important reason is that most choose to
>>> ignore those problems. And I think they choose to ignore the situation
>>> because to admit it would mean that they would then have to do something
>>> about it, and that would threaten their comfortable way of life.
>>> As one person recently observed, "most people would be lining up to shovel
>>> baby fur seals into the furnace if it meant they could maintain their
>>> lifestyle just that little bit longer."
>>>
>>> Andrew
>>>
>>>
>>>> On 22/10/2013 7:25 PM, Tim Jones wrote:
>>>> I tend to agree and whilst the skeptics annoy me and I am certain man-made
>>>> climate change is a reality, it's just a symptom of the ever increasing
>>>> recklessness with which we are treating our earth. However the constant
>>>> debate about it has been exploited to obscure what we really need to do,
>>>> which is to protect our environment and its diversity. I fear it's way too
>>>> late, but anyone with any interest in the future of our planet should be
>>>> doing what they feasibly can, whether it's voting green, donating to
>>>> conservation or simply carrying out voluntary work. Our politicians must be
>>>> brought to account for the insanity of what they are allowing to happen
>>>> while others get on with whatever else can be achieved. We can't save
>>>> everything, but there must be a point at which some kind of equilibrium is
>>>> reached, maybe even some improvement. And the point should be made, in any
>>>> discussion, at any level.
>>>>
>>>> Sent from my iPad
>>>>
>>>>> On 22 Oct 2013, at 9:31 pm, "Geoff Hutchinson" <>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> I am sick and tired of hearing about Climate Change.
>>>>>
>>>>> The climate has been changing forever and will continue to do so.
>>>>>
>>>>> It is POLLUTION (the reduction of) that the Climate Change experts should
>>>>> be
>>>>> calling out for.
>>>>>
>>>>> Carbon is one of them, but plastic will kill us and all the creatures
>>>>> first.
>>>>>
>>>>> This is not a scientific observation it is a personal observation.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Sadly
>>>>>
>>>>> Geoff Hutchinson
>>>>>
>>>>> ===============================
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>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> ***********************************************************
>>> Andrew Hobbs
>>>
>>>
>>> ***********************************************************
>>>
>>>
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