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Recent projections published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics set out a range of possible demographic futures for Australia. This article examines 12 of these which all share the same life expectancy assumptions, but which differ in their assumptions for fertility and net overseas migration. It shows that all of the projection series that include

Access Australia, the main lobby group is gloating about its success in flooding Canberra with an orchestrated email protest campaign. Its use of language is enlightening: it refers to "consumers" rather than patients. IVF clinics are also exhorting potential patients – sorry, consumers – to write protest letters to politicians and the media. The IVF

The current financial meltdown is the result of under-regulated markets built on an ideology of free market capitalism and unlimited economic growth. The fundamental problem is that the underlying assumptions of this ideology are not consistent with what we now know about the real state of the world. The financial world is, in essence, a

Is still high, but only partly because of the one child policy China’s one child policy is one of the most controversial social policies ever implemented. The policy reduced the fertility rate and has helped raise living standards for most people in China, but it has been heavily criticised for violating human rights and having many negative social consequences,

Every weekend, rain or shine, I suggest that we flaunt our defiance of UN dietary recommendations with a series of vast Homeric barbecues. We are going to have carnivorous festivals of chops and sausages and burgers and chitterlings and chine and offal, and the fat will run down our chins, and the dripping will blaze

Rapid population growth in some regions, combined with increasing affluence and explosive growth in fossil fuel and natural resources consumption throughout the world, is seriously endangering a broad range of natural systems that support life. For the first time in history, much of the natural world is adversely affected by human activity.  Global warming is

In an era of changing climate and sinking economies, Malthusian limits to growth are back—and squeezing us painfully. Whereas more people once meant more ingenuity, more talent and more innovation, today it just seems to mean less for each. Less water for every cattle herder in the Horn of Africa. (The United Nations projects there

  Most of the comments posted after this online article, all assumably by women, were more concerned with women’s personal freedom to choose their fertility rates than the social or environmental consequences associated with reproduction. A number of readers suggested that the stigma associated with not having children is still inherent in Australian society. Some

Now is the best time for long-term thinking on our nation’s size.   Canberra Times, March 27 2009   Last week’s decision by the Federal Government to slash the immigration intake in light of the seriously deteriorating global and national economic situation will probably be viewed as a sensible move by most commentators. That’s not

We need measures to deal with the growth rate of humankind. Canberra Times, Monday June 8th 2009 These days with the global financial crisis,climate change, the war on terrorism and now swine flu it is difficult forother global issues to get media space. Just recently the United Nationspublished its latest review of world population prospects,