GLOBAL POPULATION SPEAK OUT 2011
February is the designated month for the 2011 Global Population Speak Out. The Population Institute, based in Washington DC, has initiated this project to raise awareness around the world about current size and growth of the human population on Earth. It is urging concerned citizens to speak out in some way during February on the importance of addressing the current size and growth of human population as a fundamental sustainability issue.
Every day brings new evidence of the need to tackle runaway population growth. I have no doubt that the present uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt have unsustainable population levels as their root cause.
Food riots are spreading across Algeria. Russia is importing grain to sustain its cattle herds until spring grazing begins. India is wrestling with an 18% annual food inflation rate, sparking protests. China is looking abroad for potentially massive quantities of wheat and corn.
We are adding 80 million people each year to a world population that has nearly doubled since 1970. Tonight there will be over 200,000 extra mouths at the dinner table, and many of them will have empty plates. Every night, over 200,000 extra mouths.
And in many countries, grain harvests are shrinking. In the Middle East spreading water shortages are shrinking the harvest. In India and China water tables are falling as aquifers are depleted. Irrigated areas are shrinking in the United States. In France, Germany and the United Kingdom, wheat yields are no longer rising. Suburban sprawl, and paving of land for roads, highways and parking lots has claimed cropland in California, in the Nile River basin in Egypt, and in China and India. Soil erosion is lowering yields and destroying agricultural land. For more information on this issue, look up “The Great Food Crisis 2011”, by Lester R. Brown.
And, please, speak out about population at least once during February.
Kelvin Thomson
Federal Member for Wills
Tuesday 1st February 2011
I am a conservative voter but Kelvin Thompson is the only politician in Australia who understands the population crises. Rudd didn't and Gillard doesn't and unfortunately neither does Tony Abbott and thats a real shame for me. The world probably cant support more than 4 billion people and so we go on using all our resources as though there is no tomorrow. What fools we are. You keep up the good work Kelvin and run as an independent as Labor has no idea how to manage anything.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking out won't change the fecundity of the overwhelming numbers of idiots in this world.Idiots who have the support of their governments and their religions,including Australia.
ReplyDeleteWe have our Costello Bonus Babies PLUS the feel good immigration idiot pushers.
The only cure for this problem is a crash.
People imagine that the Earth is limitless, and unscientifically, think that it will keep expanding, or the technology or God will provide! History proves otherwise. We have the ability to solve the overpopulation crisis, but can't over-ride the taboo that goes with the topic. The UN should be encouraging people to take responsibility for their populations. Globalisation has given false hope, false illusions, of aid, immigration, international trade and justice.
ReplyDeleteLast weekend on television there was a documentary on Easter Island. The Easter Islanders cut down all the trees to move massive Stone Statues. Of course once all the trees were gone the Islanders starved. The question always asked is why the Islanders did not see the disaster coming and put a stop to the construction of the Stone Statues, surely a Stone Statue was less important than food?
ReplyDeleteEvery year the evidence of overpopulation both at home and abroad is mounting.Can we avoid the catastrophe that looms in the not too distant future?
ReplyDeleteI am hopeful, but not confident.
Foreign aid to overpopulated countries should be tied to the implementation of verifiable birth control measures. Children have a right to a decent life. If it cannot be provided they should not be conceived. Abandon political correctness and speak out.
ReplyDeletehmwalter recognizes the problem but I fear that it will be counterproductive to "tie aid to verifiable birth control measures"...
ReplyDeleteEmpirically, it seems that the overpopulation problem is closely associated with repressive cultural and religious practices, especially in as much as they impact women.
I'd suggest aid should be tied to improvement in the status of women in overpopulated countries. Free, educated women who have the opportunity to fulfill their economic aspirations will naturally reduce birth rates to sensible levels. Freedom includes, of course, access to modern medicine and birth control technologies.
It is the technological and organizational challenge of our times to find the resources to give all people an opportunity to seek a quality lifestyle over mere numbers produced. The far greater difficulty is finding the courage to take on repressive cultural and religious practices...
With absolute certainty, El Nino will return with a vengeance to wreak havoc on our once-mighty Murray. While the SA Government decries the eastern states for taking too much water from the Murray-Darling system, it is pushing ahead with population growth targets that will result in more water consumption and therefore no reduction in South Australia's draw on the Murray. Such hypocrisy from the driest state on the driest continent.
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