On overpopulation.
yes, the fact that we have 7 billion(?) humans on the planet is the root cause of all our problems. If there were no humans, we wouldn't have any problems
I believe that 7 billion is unsustainable long term. Agree with PT on this. What the figure is, and what the figure is for Australia I don't know.
What causes overpopulation? Largely, poverty. It's less to do with religion and culture than you might think. This is why developed countries have negative natural population growth (ie births vs deaths not including immigration) and developing countries have positive population growth. It's been shown also that there is a high correlation between better education (especially for girls) and declining birth rates.
But, environmental destruction/climate change is also a factor of consumption. Developed countries consume much more per capita than developing countriehs so to expect developing countries to limit consumption per capita while we don't is unrealistic.
On native land degradation/destruction this is less a factor of more population requiring more living space, but rather resource consumption - forestry, agriculture. In Indonesia where I'm living now forests are being cut down not so much for new cities, but for palm oil plantations, which are massive. This palm oil is used globally as a cheap oil/sugar source in most processed foods. Of course resource consumption is related to overall global population, but it's again more a factor of how much is consumed per capita.
Here's a catch-22 though - if wealth results in a declining birth rate, then developing countries will become wealthier, fewer births, but greater consumption. Unless we can find a way to be wealthier AND consume less.
Ultimately I agree with PT that growth whether through immigration/increased consumption is unsustainable and will *smile* the planet. But ultimately I think that capitalism will always treat environment as an externality and resources as infinite, so one day we will have to end capitalism, at least as we know it. But the answer is not communism or socialism - these are failed social experiments.
What is the answer - *smile* if I know. But we need to move towards a zero-growth future.
From wikipedia:
Zero growth may refer to:
Degrowth, a political, economic, and social movement based on ecological economics, anti-consumerist, and anti-capitalist ideas
Steady-state economy, an economy consisting of a constant stock of physical wealth (capital) and a constant population size
Zero population growth, a condition of demographic balance where the number of people in a specified population neither grows nor declines
It's probably a combination of all these things.
An ideal future for me is a more cooperative society, much less focussed on consumerism and competition. We will live simpler lives, travel less, be more community oriented, more environmentally focused, more philosophical. We will enjoy walking/cycling/playing sport/reading than riding jetskis and going to Bali every year. We will be happier, we will work less, and work on things we enjoy more. We won't be motivated by salary. This is a utopia of course, will we ever get there?
I'm not anti-technology - I work in tech. But our technology will be smarter, less environmentally destructive and we won't be motivated by getting the latest TV/Smartphone/car.
The most important thing that needs to change is the mindset of humanity. "Nature" is not something that God gave us to exploit - it's the system that sustains us and everything else - we are the "smartest" creatures on the planet and it's our responsibility to care for our environment and all the other living things that depend on us not to *smile* them over.
Rantman out.