Tuesday 8th February 2011
Kelvin Thomson welcomes Doctors for the Environment Australia joining the Population Reform Campaign
Federal Labor Member for Wills, Kelvin Thomson, today welcomed the release by the Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA) of a poster to convey the health risks associated with runaway population growth.
“The DEA Poster titled ‘Advancing Australia Fairly’ will be sent to over 24,000 GPs this week, and displayed in waiting rooms right around the country”, Mr Thomson said.
“The poster illustrates very clearly the harsh reality of unfettered, runaway population growth; urban sprawl, destruction of native bushland and wildlife, loss of productive farmland, bigger carbon footprint, traffic congestion and more.
“Our GPs are witnessing first hand the detrimental physical and mental health ramifications associated with record population growth. DEA’s campaign is in the best interests of our community and will support policy makers prepared to take responsibility for implementing a sustainable population strategy”.
“The release of the DEA Poster also coincides with Global Population Speak Out month. 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”.
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