Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Population

Reflections on the ‘Malthusian Catastrophe’ as the World Approaches 7 Billion

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ON October 31, 2011 the world’s population will top seven billion. That’s according to expert opinion and a recent article in Nature.[1]

Writing in 1798, when there were less than one billion people on planet earth, Thomas Malthus suggested that misery, vice and poverty would keep population in check. [2]

Malthus was wrong.

Where there is most poverty, population growth is accelerating, while in rich countries population growth is slowing. The average number of children per woman in the world’s poorest countries is 4.5, compared to 1.7 for developed countries.

It is small increases in wealth and education that can lower fertility and are likely to result in a slowing in the world’s population growth.

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1. Jeff Tollefson. Seven billion and counting. Nature 478, 300 (2011)
2. Thomas Malthus. An Essay on the principle of population. Thomas Malthus, 1798

Wrong Policy on Population: A Note from Peter Ridd

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LATEST statistics show that Australia’s population is growing at a rate of more than a million every three years. This growth rate is being driven primarily by record rates of immigration and a relative young population, itself a product of rapid past immigration. Doubtless Peter Costello’s baby bonus has also made the situation worse by encouraging the increased fertility rates of Australian women.

At the present rate Australia will have a population of about 50 million by mid century and 100 million by the end of the century. If this sounds implausible, consider that at the end of World War II, just 64 years ago, Australia’s population was only 7.5 million, i.e. it has almost tripled in that time.

This population growth should be considered an economic and environmental problem of huge proportions. From the economic point of view, Australia relies mostly on mining and agriculture for its export earnings. These industries require a very small proportion of the population to operate (although it is true that due to inadequate training in the technical trades and engineering, they have suffered a temporary labour shortages in recent years).

The growing population in Australia will not increase exports of iron ore, coal or gold and will reduce our exports of food as we are forced to consume more of our output internally. The money that comes to Australia from the sales of our resources presently gets divided among 22 million Australians. When the population doubles the amount per capita will halve. [Read more…] about Wrong Policy on Population: A Note from Peter Ridd

Hong Kong Cleans Up It’s Environment

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HongKong Sept 06 005 blogACCORDING to many commentators, one of the greatest challenges facing humanity in the twenty-first century is the protection and conservation of the environment.   It’s a mainstream issue and not just in places like Australia.  Indeed even the government of Hong Kong is now making environmental sustainability a key objective which it intends to integrate with economic and social objectives. 

And according to recent Australian government advice there are opportunities for Australian businesses in pollution prevention and control technologies as the country seeks to address air and water pollution.  Current major suppliers of environmental equipment are apparently from the USA, Japan, mainland China and the UK.

[Read more…] about Hong Kong Cleans Up It’s Environment

Population Imperialists

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“We know full well what happens when women’s fertility becomes the object of draconian top-down social engineering as it has in China and was in the dark days of eugenics when thousands were involuntarily sterilised. The war on population always has been, and will continue to be, a war on women’s bodies,” Ms Hartmann said.  Read more.

Uneven Population Growth

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Although the population of the world continues to grow substantially, 79 million a year, the rate of growth has declined by nearly half in the last 40 years – from 2.0 to 1.2 per cent per annum.  It have varied significantly by continent … Read more here.

The Real Issue: Global Over-Breeding – A Note From Haldun Abdullah

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Hi Jennifer,

Now that we have left global warming behind us (almost unanimous agreement that it is the result of human activity or rather over-activity, and that its here to stay unless something is done about it urgently) we can concentrate on the real issue, which is, as I believe over population both at the global and local levels.

It seems like the balancing forces of nature, biotic potential and environmental resistance (in the ecological sense), have lost their balancing character in favor of biotic potential. World population has been soaring in the past few centuries in spite of wars, diseases, epidemics and so forth. I have attached an illustrative reference, which shows how world population has increased over the years and how it will reach about 8 billion by 2020. The animation included is really gloomy (Australia does not seem to be effected).

I strongly believe that, unless something is done about human over-breeding very urgently (like having an international agreement on limiting populations on a rational basis) the whole world will be overpopulated in such a manner (like some countries already are!), that the developing countries shall not be able to reach a standard of living of the so called developed countries. Further, because of the continued depletion of resources, the standards of living in the developed countries will reach such levels that severe intra-specific competition (sometimes referred to as “innovation”) will be dominant in every aspect of our lives. Not to mention that present day international conflicts will be much more widespread. So far, we humans have been clever overcoming environmental resistance, it did not work out, let us try to be wise from now on (not wise guys!).

Regards, Haldun