National Director of Sustainable Population Australia 14 November 2003 SPEECH TO ISOS CONFERENCE Bryan Furnass, Bob Douglas and I sat down a year ago to organise this ISOS conference. We chose nine themes, broadly divided between environmental, social and economic issues. The national executive of my organisation, Sustainable Population Australia, was less than …
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 …
People and Place Authors: Bob Birrell and Ernest Healy, Volume 17, Issue 4 (2009) The Australian Government has stated an unconditional commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by five per cent on year 2000 levels by 2020. However, in the absence of new abatement measures, Treasury-led modelling indicates that Australia’s emissions will grow from 553 million …
Population Growth and Australia’s 2020 Greenhouse Gas Emission Commitments Read More »
Population ageing reduces the proportion of working age people supporting people aged over 65 years. The rate of improvement in average living standards is projected to fall, placing pressure on Australia’s capacity to fund the spending pressures associated with an ageing population, particularly in terms of health spending. Australia’s population will continue to grow over …
Part 15: Fossil fuel energy–finite Every day, you hear companies, governors and newscasters yelping about our emerging ‘green energy’ and ‘green technology’ and ‘alternative energy’. Let’s look at our self-delusion more closely. In order to drive cars, boats, planes and fuel industry, Americans burn 20 million barrels of oil daily while the rest of the …
By Peter Ridd – posted to On-Line Opinion, Thursday, 13 August 2009 http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=9283&page=0 Latest statistics show that Australia’s population is growing at a rate of more than a million every three years. This growth rate is being driven primarily by record rates of immigration and a relative young population, itself a product of rapid past …
ENVIRONMENT Minister Malcolm Turnbull estimates that by 2015, the ban on incandescent light bulbs will save 4 million tonnes of CO2 from going into the atmosphere annually. He doesn’t mention that by then, another 54 million tonnes per year will be emitted as the result of population growth. Net migration was up again last year …
CO2 and Population Growth (The Australian 20070223) Read More »
We should start out by making it clear that we have no issue with anyone that prefers living in a high-density area or with the free market construction of buildings to fulfill this preference. The issue we have is with the enforced imposition of high density housing upon the bulk of Australians that don’t want …
High-Density Housing Reflects Dense Government Thinking Read More »
Tony Jones opened by saying that Mark Latham had belled the cat by pointing out that you can't propose to limit population unless you can limit immigration. So why wouldn't the government promise to limit immigration? Jones to his credit kept the debate on population and immigration rather than sliding across onto asylum-seekers in the …
Summary of Lateline Debate – Government, Opposition Face Off Over Population Read More »
The so-called ageing problem is a result of two factors – declining mortality and declining fertility. But, for Australia at least, these trends have existed for the last 150 years or more. In 1860, Australia’s death rate was 2.0% p.a. – it is now 0.7%. The birth rate was 4.3% p.a. – it is now 1.2%. But ageing has not …
