Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) was formed in 1988 by people who felt that the issue of human population numbers was overlooked, or regarded as too contentious, by many of those striving to preserve Australia's ecological heritage. We are an ecological group dedicated to preserving species' habitats globally and in Australia from the degradation caused by human population growth. SPA works on many fronts to encourage informed public debate about how Australia and the world can achieve an ecologically sustainable population. See our aims and objectives.
Call for Nominations for Election to the SPA National Executive Committee and Notice of Motion
The SPA Annual General Meeting will be held in Adelaide, South Australia on the 4th April, 2009 at a venue still to be decided. At that meeting the elections for all SPA Committee positions will be held and nominations for these positions are currently open from financial members of SPA. The tenure for these positions is 12 months. You can nominate for more than one position e.g. Secretary and Committee member.
The positions are: National President; Vice President; Secretary; Treasurer; and three to five committee members. These are crucial positions providing leadership for the organisation into the future and members are urged to consider standing.
A nomination form is available to download as a PDF here or the form is available from the State Branch offices or the National Office in Weston Creek (e-mail info@population.org.au or phone (02) 6288 6810).
To nominate, the form must be completed and returned to the National Office by midnight (EDST) on the 14th January, 2009.
Voting proxy forms will be distributed with the February 2009 Newsletter which will also include a list of candidates for positions and any candidate statements.
Notice of Motion: Motions for inclusion in the AGM should arrive at the Canberra Office by midnight (EDST) 14th January, 2009.
John Coulter, National President.#
The over-population versus over-consumption debate
Tom Gosling summarises Jonathon Porritt
Posted 14 December, 2008
How many times have you been involved in a conversation with someone from an environmental NGO who has dismissed your arguments with “the problem is not over-population in the poor world, it’s over-consumption in the rich world”
It’s disturbing - people who are clearly concerned at the inequity between the wealth of the world’s richest one billion people and the poverty of the poorest billions, but who just haven’t looked into the issue deeply enough to see that over-population and over-consumption are two sides of the same coin.
In late 2008, UK environmentalist and writer Jonathon Porritt wrote a masterly analysis of this debate, submitted to Greenpeace for publication in its magazine. Greenpeace rejected it, on the grounds that it was too controversial.
As he commented on his blog (click here to access article) “if ever an article’s core hypothesis (in this case, that environmental NGOs are both gutless and less than honest in addressing population issues) was borne out by its editorial treatment, this has to be it”.
Porritt is a former Director of Friends of the Earth, and in 1996 founded the UK Forum for the Future organisation.
He concludes that most environmentalists would find his article offensive. “They will go on banging their utterly inadequate over-consumption drum, and somehow sleep easy in their beds (in the belief) that they are doing ‘a good job’. I think not.”
Media Release - 12 December 2008.
TOO MANY PEOPLE IN A STATE IN ENVIRONMENTAL DECLINE
Continued high population growth, particularly in the coastal areas,
will only exacerbate Victoria's environmental decline, according to Sustainable Population Australia (SPA).
The State of the Environment Report 2008, released by the Government on
4 December, details widespread environmental degradation across the
state. Like the 1992 report from the Australian Academy of Science,
just like the 1996 Federal State of Environment Report, this report
repeatedly stresses the pre-eminent role of population growth in
increasing environmental damage. Yet the Victorian Government, together
with every other government across the country ignores this repeated
warning.
Many of Victoria's unique native plants and animals are already
endangered or threatened with extinction. The report notes that
Victoria's ecological footprint is three times higher than the global
average and that humanity would need four Earths if the whole world
lived like Victorians.
National President of SPA, Dr John Coulter, says the combination of high
consumption and too many people for the resources available underlie the
problem.
"Our numbers and activities are placing us in overshoot with respect to
the environment," says Dr Coulter. "To continue on this trajectory will
lead to environmental collapse.”
"High economic and population growth will bring us to collapse even faster."
Dr Coulter says the Victorian State government has its foot on the accelerator of population growth, as does the Federal Government. The report states
that Victoria will hit six million ten years earlier than recently thought.
"This reckless policy seems to be non-negotiable with either
government," he says.
Dr Coulter notes that Victoria's Environment Commissioner, Dr Ian
McPhail, reported that 'Government, business and the community must
accept that natural systems are the basis of our economy and our well
being. The future cannot be an extension of the past.'
"If that is the case," he says, "we cannot keep growing. We can halve
population growth by vastly reducing immigration, excepting of the
refugee component.
"Unless we deal with the underlying problem, namely too many people
putting too much pressure on the land and atmosphere, in five years time
we will read the next report telling of an even grimmer environmental
situation."
Further information: John Coulter 08 8388 2153 jrpfc@bigpond.com
Media Release - 4 December 2008.
RECORD POPULATION GROWTH DISASTER FOR CLIMATE TARGETS
“Australia’s greenhouse emissions are rising in lock-step with population increase”, says Dr Coulter, National President, Sustainable Population Australia (SPA).
"Premier Brumby welcomes Melbourne growing to five million by 2020, adding almost half a million more homes plus requisite roads, hospitals, power stations…. Every premier has this attitude to population growth and house building, an attitude shared with the Rudd Government,". "The energy expended and greenhouse gases emitted from this continual expansion are huge.
"No wonder Climate Change Minister, Penny Wong would not commit Australia to a 2020 target for emissions before the Poznan, Poland meeting next week," he says. "It is impossible to reconcile cuts in emissions with Australia's continued population growth. Australia's very high population growth rate will make it impossible to achieve acceptable greenhouse emission targets.
“Professor Garnaut told us that a10 per cent cut in emissions by 2020 involves a 30 per cent per capita cut; three times more difficult.
"Surely the Rudd Government can do the simple maths. Why does it persist with such high population growth rates? The answer lies in its priorities. It has done the maths, it does know the answer, it pursues the same business-as-usual economic goals as its predecessors (ever more population and economic growth) while paying lip service to climate change and environmental sustainability. We know this because Minister after Minister has refused to meet with SPA and discuss this matter or even to answer questions addressed to it.”
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has announced that as at June 2008, Australia's population had grown to 21,374,000, an increase of 1.7 per cent or 359,000 people. “Such growth rates are characteristic of Third World countries but most unfortunately for our children’s future, it’s occurring in Australia with the highest per capita emissions in the world” concluded Dr Coulter.
Further information: John Coulter 08 8388 2153 jrpfc@bigpond.com
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