Media Releases
Rural development up, population down, to end poverty (JUL)
Jul 11, 2001 for World Population Day – July 11 Helping the world’s poorest people to escape from poverty lies in rural development programs and slowing population growth, according to Sustainable Population Australia inc (SPA). While more people are being fed adequately today, the numbers of the poor and malnourished has risen, with over 800 million …
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Ecological ethics versus entry for asylum seekers: australia’s moral dilemma (JUL)
Australians must weigh the obligation to care for fellow humans in need against the good of the environment and the rights of future generations, according to Dr Paul Collins, author and broadcaster. Dr Collins says the debate about accepting refugees and asylum-seekers has been conducted in a trite and naïve manner. “One side argues we …
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Population growth threatens sustainable development (OCT)
Oct 22, 2000 Continued population growth in the developing world is a threat to sustainable development, according to Australians for an Ecologically Sustainable Population (AESP). Referring to World Development Information Day (October 24), AESP National President Dr Harry Cohen said 97 per cent of the world’s annual population growth of around 78 million occurs in …
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Education: not cultural assimilation rebadged, Culturally united education with new symbols
Speaking in Adelaide today, Dr John Coulter, National President of Sustainable Population Australia congratulated Kevin Rudd on the first big step toward reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. ‘But’ he said, ‘it is only the first step along the road to creating a single united nation which incorporates and respects the cultures of both. ‘You have identified education as a critical element but whose education and containing what cultural assumptions? Education must not be merely another route to assimilation. Non-indigenous Australians must acknowledge that Aboriginal culture contains elements that a new reconciled and integrated culture must contain. ‘Over 60,000 years Aboriginal people came to respect the land, to treat it with reverence and to identify with it. Today the mainstream culture sees a land to be exploited. Every resource must be discovered, dug up and shipped out, faster and ever faster til nothing is left for future generations but a vast empty hole in the ground. The mainstream must learn a reverence for the land and where better than from our own indigenous brothers and sisters?’ Dr Coulter continued, ‘Not only would explicit acknowledgment of the superior ethical attitude to land of indigenous people reinforce pride in their own culture, it is an ethical attitude we all need to learn for our own survival. There are very important Aboriginal cultural values that need to be adopted by the mainstream and especially in our educational curricula for both black and white.’ He then suggested one symbolic change may help to move us toward a more reverent and caring attitude toward our country, its unique environment, its plants and its animals. ‘Rather than continue with the irrelevant European star signs, we could all be born under an Australian totemic plant and animal with different totems for each day in the year – 366 of them. Thus among our 20 million population there would be 55,000 people with special knowledge of and a dedication to care for and respect each of these 366 plants and 366 animals. ‘This is not in any way to replace Aboriginal totemic associations or to be disrespectful. Rather it is to illustrate that their tradition and cultural practice is so valuable that it has been adopted in principle into the mainstream. ‘Every class of non-indigenous children would be associated with 20 -30 different animal and plant totems and every class would learn about those living Australian symbols, their environments and their associations with the country we all call home; and hopefully, to develop a reverence for land that is woefully deficient in the mainstream culture’ Dr Coulter concluded. Further information: Dr John Coulter, National President, Sustainable Population Australia 08 83882153 president@population.org.au
Halt population growth and feed the world – maybe (OCT)
Oct 15, 2001 for World Food Day – 16 October It may not be possible to feed a projected population of nine billion people, according to Sustainable Population Australia (SPA). Increased use of petroleum, for both farm machinery and fertiliser manufacture, has doubled agricultural yields over the past 50 years. “Unfortunately, as global supplies of …
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Queensland growth draining our water away (APR)
Monday 30 April 2007 The Queensland Government’s South East Queensland Regional Plan suggests each of us should be consuming only 270 litres per person per day by 2010, 30L/person/day down on the current rate. However, this is only a small fraction of the water we consume say conservationists. Mr Simon Baltais, President of Sustainable Population …
Emulate China & achieve emission targets (DEC)
“Penny Wong, in her last speech to the Poznan Conference identified Australia’s population growth as a serious impediment to achieving the Rudd Government’s own 2050 emission reduction target. Yet every state government, with the full support of Federal Government policy, is chasing population growth and growth in per capita consumption, very substantially increasing, rather than …
Too many people in a state in environmental decline (DEC)
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 …
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Record population growth disaster for climate targets (DEC)
“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. …
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Rudd repeats Hawke failure (Sept)
Dr Coulter continued, “Professor Garnaut in his recent supplementary report pointed out that an overall 10% reduction in national emissions by 2020 would require a 30% cut in per capita emissions but failed to draw the obvious conclusion that the Rudd Government’s push for ever higher population growth is making the job of reducing our national emissions much …