Kelvin Thomson to speak in Canberra this week – all welcome
Kelvin Thomson MP, the member for Wills, will address a public meeting of the ACT Branch of SPA this Wednesday, 10 February, at 7.30pm. Mr Thomson, one of the most active campaigners on population in Australia today, advocates abolition of the baby bonus, cutting the skilled migration program to 25,000, increasing the refugee program from 13,750 to 20,000 per annum, and increasing Australia's foreign aid program to the UN-recommended target 0.7% of Gross Domestic Income.
Anyone interested in hearing Mr Thomson’s views on recent developments in the population debate, and his 14-point plan for stabilising Australia’s population at 26 million, is urged to attend what promises to be a very interesting evening.
The public meeting will be held at Havelock House, 85 Northbourne Ave, Turner, and admission is free. ACT SPA members are asked to invite friends and acquaintances who might also be interested.
Further information on Mr Thomson is available at www.kelvinthomson.com.au
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 09 February 2010 08:37 )
Europe is not heading for a population collapse
Written by Administrator
Monday, 08 February 2010 07:23
Mark O'Connor commenting on this article from the Guardian said,
"Rudd and Swann claim Australia needs the world's highest per capita immigration rate in order to compensate for its aging population. ??One of the simplest answer's to this claim is to note that we have in fact one of the youngest populations in the industrialised world, and that regions like Europe with far more elderly folk have not accepted the high-immigration "solution". This article in The Guardian by demographer Tomas Sobotka explains why. It also criticises the pro-natalist claims of our government's favorite demographer Peter McDonald. Fred Pearce, referred to in the article, is a serial propounder of the Replacement Rate Fallacy – on which see http://www.australianpoet.com/overloading.html#rrf
Tomas Sobotka writing in the Guardian.co.uk on Friday February 5th 2010 commenced;
Fred Pearce vividly portrays population collapse in the town of Hoyerswerda in eastern Germany and links it with a likely future for Europe: "Europe's population is, right now, peaking, after more than six centuries of continuous growth. With each generation reproducing only half its number, this looks like the start of a continent-wide collapse in numbers. Some predict wipeout by 2100" (Lonely planet, G2, 1 February).
As a demographer specialising in fertility and population trends in Europe I find it unsettling that so much attention is paid to overblown claims of the continent's population demise. Yes, Europe as a whole is projected to experience a gradual decline of its population, from 732 million now to 691 million in 2050 according to the United Nations. But, although further decline after 2050 will most probably follow, this gets nowhere close to a collapse. .....
To read the article in full see http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/05/europe-not-heading-for-population-collapse
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 09 February 2010 06:52 )
Australia’s day of population reckoning
Written by CRISPIN HULL
Saturday, 30 January 2010 10:04
This article first appeared in The Canberra Times on 30 January 2010 and can be found at Crispin Hull's website at http://www.crispinhull.com.au/2010/01/30/australias-day-of-population-reckoning/#more-9519
HOW apt that the debate which major political parties have tried to avoid for so long should become one of the major talking points of the week of Australia Day – our population.
The line-up was instructive. Philanthropist businessman Dick Smith, poet and author Mark O’Connor, former politicians Bob Carr and (less recently) Bob Hawke against large increases in population on one side and billionaire property developer Harry Triguboff and serving politicians Tony Abbott and (less recently) Kevin Rudd in favour of a large population on the other.
A four-segment series on the 7.30 Report added to the debate.
Population growth and Australia’s 2020 greenhouse gas emission commitments
Written by Administrator
Friday, 29 January 2010 17:23
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 tonnes in 2000 to 774 million tonnes in 2020. This article disaggregates the Treasury modelling in order to estimate the contribution of population expansion to this growth. It shows that 83 per cent of the forecast increase in greenhouse emissions to 2020 will be attributable to population growth. The article concludes that it is very unlikely that Australia will achieve the five per cent reduction target by 2020 in the absence of attention to the population growth factor.
This abstract and the article are presented with permission. Filesize: 325kb Pages: 11
Last Updated ( Friday, 29 January 2010 18:04 )
"What is a sustainable population for our planet?
Written by Jack Alpert
Saturday, 23 January 2010 02:18
Jack Alpert, a Californian engineer, gives us his view of why a sustainable, peaceful, world with more widespread wellbeing requires a much lower human population. This is a YouTube Video available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTWduFB_RX0. For background and the underlying assumptions to Jack's video visit his website: http://www.skil.org"
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Disclaimer - Jack Alpert is a Director, Stanford Knowledge Integration Laboratory in Stanford California USA and holds a PhD from Stanford University, an MS (Eng) and a BS (Mech Eng) from Wisconsin University. The population estimates arrived at in this video are not SPA policy. However, the video is interesting and presented to encourage discussion on this important issue.
For those people interested in the discussion on a maximum sustainable human population for planet earth there is an interesting page on the subject athttp://www.evfit.com/population_max.htm
Last Updated ( Saturday, 30 January 2010 06:49 )
Reality check on growth
Written by BOB BIRRELL
Thursday, 14 January 2010 00:00
Projections of 35 million people by 2050 deflate under closer analysis.
theage.com.au , National Times to be found at http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/reality-check-on-growth-20100113-m6ue.html
Most people will have a view about whether a major increase in Australia's population by 2050 will undermine their quality of life and harm the natural environment. My opinion is that it will be damaging on both fronts. A more interesting question is: where does the 35 million projection come from and why is there such widespread acceptance within government and business circles that it is inevitable?
Written by James Hansen, Reto Ruedy, Makiko Sato, Ken Lo
Sunday, 17 January 2010 10:03
The past year, 2009, tied as the second warmest year in the 130 years of global instrumental temperature records, in the surface temperature analysis of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). The Southern Hemisphere set a record as the warmest year for that half of the world. (p1)
(. …) There is a contradiction between the observed continued warming trend and popular perceptions about climate trends. Frequent statements include: “There has been global cooling over the past decade.” “Global warming stopped in 1998.” “1998 is the warmest year in the record.” Such statements have been repeated so often that most of the public seems to accept them as being true. However, based on our data, such statements are not correct. (p2. …..)
(. ….) The bottom line is this: there is no global cooling trend. For the time being, until humanity brings its greenhouse gas emissions under control, we can expect each decade to be warmer than the preceding one. Weather fluctuations certainly exceed local temperature changes over the past half century. But the perceptive person should be able to see that climate is warming on decadal time scales. (p9. …)#
This summary was provided by William E. Rees, PhD, FRSC Professor UBC School of Community and Regional Planning and from which the above quotes were extracted. To download the full summary click on the link Hansen_Climate_Change_Article_2009
Paradise Lost
Written by Tim Murray
Saturday, 16 January 2010 19:52
West Kelowna cyclist run over by truck driver bclocalnews.com 12 January, 2010
After being hit by a pickup early Tuesday morning, an injured young man had to crawl more than two blocks to a gas station to call for help.
Jorden Martz (a baker) was riding his bicycle to work at 3 a.m. on Main Street in West Kelowna when he was struck by a pickup and knocked to the ground.
Martz’s older sister Tamara Soch said she was upset that no one stopped to help him.
“When he tried to wave people down to get help, nobody stopped,” she said.
She noted Martz had to crawl two-and-a-half blocks to reach the Chevron gas station where he called 911. At 3 a.m., the station was the only place open.
Soch said an ambulance attended and picked Martz up at the gas station. “He’s a pretty hurting unit,” Soch said.
She noted that Martz received a broken tibia, fibula and two broken ribs along with numerous wounds, scrapes and bruises. ... http://www.bclocalnews.com/news/81285912.html
Read Tim Murray's Opinion piece on a paradise lost through growth. ..
(This article is the guest editorial from "Science in Society", issue 44 Winter, 2009, reproduced with permission.) The article is in three parts Energy, Food, and Population and the Journal can be found at the main SIS website at http://www.i-sis.org.uk/ or the article at http://www.i-sis.org.uk/isisnews/sis44.php
Let us be clear about where we are now. The Copenhagen summit is more likely to be sabotaged, not by climate change denial, but by the history of self-deception that has characterised global summits.
Overloading Australia includes a chapter (Chapter 19) on ABC bias. It describes how most ABC news and current affairs programs have been airbrushing the population issue out of news items. However things are improving. Most of the major Radio National programs now cover the population issue, and indeed many of them have done interviews with Mark O'Connor or about Overloading Australia in the past year.
The Population Bomb has been both praised and vilified, but there has been no controversy over its significance in calling attention to the demographic element in the human predicament. Here we describe the book’s origins and impacts, analyze its conclusions, and suggest that its basic message is even more important today than it was forty years ago.
For too long have we supposed that technology would solve the "population problem." It won't. I first became fully aware of this hard truth when I wrote my essay "The Tragedy of the commons," ... Never have I found anything so difficult to work into shape. I wrote at least seven significantly different versions before resting content with this one, ... . It was obvious that the internal resistance to what I found myself saying was terrific. As a scientist I wanted to find a scientific solution; but reason inexorably led me to conclude that the population problem could not possibly be solved without repudiating certain ethical beliefs and altering some of the political and economic arrangements of contemporary society. Garrett Hardin: Preface of "Exploring New Ethics for Survival" (1972)
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Media Release
Let’s talk about the national anthem: We do not have boundless plains to share!
25th January, 2010
Australia’s national anthem is outdated, incorrect and should be changed according to the environment group Sustainable Population Australia (SPA).
National President of SPA, Sandra Kanck, says “If we pause on Australia Day to reflect on our identity, our thoughts should turn to reforming the anthem. It is an absolute nonsense to say that this continent has boundless plains to share, as is claimed in the second verse of the anthem." Read On!
SPA Conference 2008
On the 14th and 15th March 2008
Sustainable Population Australia Inc., held a very special Annual Conference.
The Conference was the 20th Anniversary of AESP/SPA and was on the topic
"Population, Peak Oil, Climate Change: their impact on the Millennium
Development Goals".
The Conference was held at the Shine
Dome, ANU Campus, Canberra. To obtain links to the full list of speakers and videos of each of
their presentations go to SPA Conference 2008
