Media release: plimer’s views dangerous and distracting

27 April 2009

Media Releases 2009

Professor Ian Plimer’s views on the cause of climate change are not only completely wrong but dangerous because they will distract attention from the potentially catastrophic effects of climate change, according to Sustainable Population Australia Inc.(SPA)

National president of SPA, Ms Sandra Kanck, says that, in a dangerously overcrowded world, people and other species have little chance to migrate if faced with sea-level rise, drought or prolonged flooding and other effects of climate change.

“If there’s even a risk that crop yields might decrease due to erratic rainfall or higher temperatures, then we need to stop our population growth, and even reverse it, regardless of whether we caused the climate to change or whether it happened naturally,” she says.

“The extension of Plimer’s view is that ultimately nothing matters and that would be a justification for never caring for anyone. We could recklessly grow our population for a few more brief years, and really go out with a bang as humanity confronts the four horsemen of the apocalypse: pestilence, war, famine and death.

“It’s a slippery slope and before long you wind up with a world that is dog-eat-dog.  SPA prefers a world where there is still room for compassion.

“The world currently contains some 6.7 billion people, most of whom do not enjoy the abundance of food, energy and water that is taken for granted in Australia.

“If we want everyone to have similar access to resources as we do, we must reduce our consumption and, through non-coercive humane means, bring population growth below replacement so that populations will gradually fall.

“Plimer may deem that, as fossil fuels do not cause climate change, then the end of the fossil fuel era doesn’t matter,” says Ms Kanck. “But that attitude won’t do anything to help our kids. I believe everyone should be treated as though their life matters.”

A study by two Australian scientists, published in “Fuel” journal earlier this year, has found that global coal production will rise to a peak and begin declining before 2050, perhaps as early as 2011. Crude oil production has already peaked, generating the dizzying price rise throughout 2003-2008 and denying the world’s poorest people access to fuel for transport, food production and even electricity.

“Given the difficulties in deploying renewables at the global scale, the task will be far more achievable if we can somehow limit the number of consumers.”

Further information: Sandra Kanck  08 8336 4114 or 0417882143

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