Why environmentalists don't talk much about population

If you ask some people, the solution to our environmental problems is simple – reduce population.

Global population growth is about increased longevity as well as the birth rate.

When I wrote a response to the United Nations report on biodiversity loss two weeks ago, my article attracted 350 online comments, many questioning why I didn't write about population. One person even went to the effort of clipping out the print article, annotating it with comments about population and posting it to me anonymously.

Read the story from The Sydney Morning Herald by Caitlin Fitzsimmons - “Why environmentalists don't talk much about population.”

(Resolving the population issue is not among the “low-hanging fruit” in moving towards easing the world’s climate difficulties, and, generally, slowing population growth is not something friendly to existing market philosophies embedded in the world’s economic systems.

The resolution lynch-pin to population growth is education, particularly that of women, something is fundamentally opposed in some societies - Robert McLean)

Learning the Lessons of the Planet

For most of my adult life, I have been a teacher of sorts, first as a university professor, and now as the director of a science museum. While the students and settings have changed, the job has remained the same — to share the wonders of the natural world, and teach the science we need to understand and sustain our planet.

Over time, I have come to believe that our environmental problems stem from too many people not understanding, or intentionally overlooking, the physical and biological systems governing this planet. We have gotten very good at ignoring nature’s laws, pretending that we are exempt from them.

But we’re not, and that’s where our problems arise. Whether we’re causing dangerous climate change, degrading the world’s ecosystems, or collapsing our natural resources, environmental problems begin when we ignore the physical limits of our planet, and act as if they don’t apply to us. This is a dangerous combination of ignorance and arrogance.

Read the story from Medium by Jonathan Foley - “Learning the Lessons of the Planet.”

Our animal-based diet worsens climate change

Climate change is being worsened by the Australian animal-based diet.

Writing in his 2016 book, “Meat Climate Change: The 2nd Leading Cause of Global Warming” Dr Moses Seenarine explains that diet is related to one of the most serious environmental problems humans face.

He writes that climate change cannot be solved unless animal consumption is significantly reduced and in noting that he says the demand for animal products is projected to increase by 50 percent from 2013 to 2025.

“Even if the world went fossil-free by 2100, increasing animal consumption will continue to cause catastrophic global warming,” he says.

Australia leads the world as the largest meat consuming nation, according to the chief marketing and communications officer for Meat and Livestock Australia, Lisa Sharp.

Read Lucy Cormack’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Aldi survey finds Australians spending $378 million a week on meat.”

CSIRO takes a genuine look at the future - Gittins

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fter Treasury's hopelessly inadequate attempt to peer into the future in its intergenerational report earlier this year, just look at the far more fair dinkum future-viewing exercise that CSIRO unveiled on Thursday.

Treasury's effort was little more than a propaganda exercise about the need to restrain government spending, and showed clear signs of government interference. It was widely criticised for purporting to tell us what could happen to the economy over the next 40 years while making no allowance for the effects of climate change and other environmental problems.

By contrast, CSIRO's peer-reviewed modelling exercise attempts to look at what may happen to the economy out to 2050, after accounting for the economic effects of climate change – and our efforts to reduce it – plus other environmental problems such as energy use, water use and use of other natural resources.

Read Ross Gittins’ observations in the Melbourne Age today - “Emissions hold key to economic and environmental harmony.”