We need to be Sustainable some day, the longer we wait, the harder it will be in the future. I’d prefer not to give that future to my kids and my friends kids.

Stabilisation of population is an important part of being Sustainable. Population stabilisation is a contentious issue primarily for reasons that have nothing to do with sustainability or protecting the environment. We are hard wired for survival and having as many people as possible on the earth seems like a great way to survive. Over time we will probably learn that having as many people as possible is not the best way to survive and it certainly isn’t the best way to ensure a good quality of life for everybody on earth and our descendants. Lets just hope we discover it in time to make a difference in our kids lifetimes. It doesn’t look good right now.

Some say “The crucial issue isn’t population, it’s over-consumption.” Others say “We won’t get anywhere unless we stabilise population.” These arguments seem like stalling tactics to me, and that suits the proponents of business-as-usual. We need to stabilise population, reduce pollution, use less non-renewable resources and do more to protect the natural world, as soon as possible. Not one or the other, all of them. We aren’t doing any now.

The debate about sustainability policy is often seen as a conflict between the economy and the environment / sustainability. It’s more appropriate to say that it is usually a conflict between those at the top of the economy and supporters of the environment / sustainability. Supporters of sustainability want to stabilise population. An effective way to stabilise population is to reduce immigration. The top level of business often likes high immigration because it keeps wages low and brings in more customers. The top people in business usually like low wages for the workers. In 2005 Australia’s Treasurer Peter Costello, a proponent of high immigration, initiated a Productivity Commission Report, Economic Impacts of Migration and Population Growth. The report, released in April 2006, concluded that:

• Economic gains are mostly accrued to the skilled migrants and capital owners. The incomes of the existing resident workers grow more slowly than would otherwise be the case. (page 151)

Despite this report and others with the same conclusions, government policy has been to increase immigration. This is especially disappointing because even the proponents of high immigration don’t argue that high immigration is good for the environment. Only the fringe argues that there will be less non renewable resources used by more people, less natural land used by more people, less pollution generated by more people or less greenhouse gases produced by more people.

We’ve started to make some small moves to protect the environment and move toward sustainability, but these are largely for show rather than to actually move us towards really being sustainable. Governments endeavour, as with so many government policies, to find the policy solutions that will allow them to look like they are acting in a way that will satisfy enough voters to be re-elected while at the same time not upsetting the business interests that are able to lobby successfully for business-as-usual policies.

It would be wonderful if we could tell our children and grandchildren that we made some big changes between 2015 and 2020 because:

• we wanted to make sure the air, water and land was clean for them,
• we wanted to preserve some non-renewables for them,
• we wanted to preserve some natural lands for them,
• we were really concerned that there were 52% less wild animals in 2012 than in 1970 ( WWF Living Planet Index Report 2016 ), and
• we wanted the world to be peaceful, prosperous and stable, so they could have a chance to live long happy lives

Thanks very much for reading this far.

This link has a paper showing how human population growth and resource use is likely to cause the decline of world wild animal numbers to less than 10% of their numbers in 1970 and perhaps 5% of their pre-human numbers. It also proposes some solutions. Will Baby Boomers be seen as the Generation that killed off the Wild Animals?

The following link has some articles and documents that might be of interest for more thoughts on Sustainability. Sustainability Documents

The four short videos below consider sustainability issues in a less rigorous and sometimes more humorous way.

Our Island, LeBron and Bob – A quick look at Population Growth

The Sad Tale of Slow Eric

We can’t take more than the earth has to give

What are Civilisations Goals?