New animation spells out perils of growth

29 September 2019

Media Releases 2019

Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) has launched a new six-minute animation ‘The Endless Growth Paradigm’. It details why it is critical that Australia breaks away from a system of endless population and economic growth.

SPA National president, Sandra Kanck, says Australia’s population grows by nearly 400,000 every year, the equivalent of a new Canberra.

“At this rate of population growth (1.6 per cent), we are set to double our population 44 years from now from 25 to 50 million,” says Ms Kanck.

“SPA’s six-minute animation ‘The Endless Growth Paradigm’ shows how, with unending growth, neighbourhoods will never be dense enough, cities will never stop sprawling and we will never catch up with the infrastructure backlog,”

“The impacts of relentless growth in Australia are staggering.  Parts of rural NSW are set to run out of water by November.  We have one of the highest rates of land clearing in the world, so much so that the koala is now said to be functionally extinct in some regions.

“Australians are also among the world’s highest per capita polluters.  Last year, Australia added six million new tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere.  This is 10 times the anticipated annual CO2 emissions from the new Adani coal mine.”

Ms Kanck says that the impacts of population growth are being felt particularly in our cities.

“The infrastructure costs to accommodate population growth are staggering, around $40b per year. Despite this traffic congestion is only getting worse, not only in social terms but it is also costing the economy.

“We need to measure happiness and well-being, not in terms of population and economic growth, but by more direct alternatives as the New Zealanders are doing.”

The animation was created in Melbourne using local talent, including music from popular local comedian Jude Perl and narrated by Darebin resident and activist Jane Graydee.  The animation has attracted thousands of views in its first weeks across social media platforms.  It was scripted by Mark Allen (Former 3CR presenter and founder of Population Permaculture and Planning) and SPA Communications Manager, Michael Bayliss.

Link to ‘The Endless Growth Paradigm’ can be found here

Further Information:

Michael Bayliss

media@population.org.au

Tags:

Population and Economics
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