SPA takes on liz allen, Australia’s extinction crisis, and revamps our popforum
President message: e-news, Oct 012018
SPA’s activism on your behalf continues with our submission to the Senate Environment Committee’s inquiry into ‘Australia’s Faunal Extinction Crisis’. You can read it here: https://population.org.au/articles/2018-09-18/spas-submission-senate-environment-committees-inquiry-australias-extinction.
In April communication within SPA’s Yahoo groups became all but impossible, and as a consequence 80 or so members who are part of PopForum were slowed in their discussions. Exec member Peter Cook has now migrated the group to a new site (thanks Peter). For those who are unfamiliar with PopForum it’s a ready-made way to access all that’s happening with population – you don’t have to do anything but join. That can be accomplished by e-mailing popforum+subscribe@groups.io
Are you, like me, getting tired of the happy pills approach of ANU demographer Liz Allen? She’s described on the ABC website as one of their ‘first-ever top-five humanities researchers’. Dr Allen says she’s on about countering misinformation and fear, ‘whether it be about data (for example the census and marriage postal survey) or population dynamics (for example immigration and fertility)’. Her repeated message is we should not be afraid of increasing population numbers although she (also repeatedly) fails to provide science to back her cock-eyed optimism. I suggest whenever you hear her espousing these views you phone the program producer or even better lodge a complaint: http://www.abc.net.au/contact/complain.htm
Sandra Kanck
National President