an update - February 2009
As concern grows about the impacts of climate change on Australia, we have, once again, seen a rise in some people calling for a reduction in immigration in order to reduce impacts on the Australian environment. FoE is very cautious about these types of approaches. The following is a brief response to this trend, which has been published in a number of newspapers.
There can be no doubt that increasing Australia's population will increase our ecological impact (Population Australia's 'big threat', Jan 24, 2009). Yet to focus on population growth as 'the problem' is both dangerous and is to refuse to acknowledge a deeper, and perhaps uncomfortable truth.
It is dangerous because calls for reduced population can be adopted by those with racist agendas. It also ignores our responsibilities to our regional neighbours who may be displaced by climate change. The deeper fact missing from calls for population stabilisation is the completely unsustainable per capita consumption levels of our lifestyles. Our ecological footprint is more than three times the global average and, according to the state Environment Protection Authority, almost four times what the planet could support if everyone were to live at this level of consumption.
As we face off against the interconnected issues of water stress and climate change, our most pressing task is to bring our lifestyles to a globally equitable level, where we only consume a 'fair share' of resources. As the saying goes, growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell. But to focus too strongly on population is equally unhelpful as we struggle to achieve a future based on ecological sustainability, international perspectives and human rights.
Cam Walker
Friends of the Earth Australia
It is dangerous because calls for reduced population can be adopted by those with racist agendas. It also ignores our responsibilities to our regional neighbours who may be displaced by climate change. The deeper fact missing from calls for population stabilisation is the completely unsustainable per capita consumption levels of our lifestyles. Our ecological footprint is more than three times the global average and, according to the state Environment Protection Authority, almost four times what the planet could support if everyone were to live at this level of consumption.
As we face off against the interconnected issues of water stress and climate change, our most pressing task is to bring our lifestyles to a globally equitable level, where we only consume a 'fair share' of resources. As the saying goes, growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell. But to focus too strongly on population is equally unhelpful as we struggle to achieve a future based on ecological sustainability, international perspectives and human rights.
Cam Walker
Friends of the Earth Australia
