Erik BJORGAN for Parliament

by David and Marcia Pimentel
http://www.agridigest.com/featureGrowthperils.html

About forty years ago, the world population was only 3.5 billion, or about half of the present population of 6.7 billion people. Most of us seem to ignore or be unaware of the magnitude of this rapid expansion and the vast changes that it is causing throughout the world. Indeed, the daily and even the annual impacts of this growth go unnoticed. Yet the impacts of the growing world population on land, water, energy, and biota resources are real and indeed overwhelming. Read the rest of this entry »

by Adam D. Sacks

In the 20 years since we climate activists began our work in earnest, the state of the climate has become dramatically worse, and the change is accelerating—this despite all of our best efforts. Clearly something is deeply wrong with this picture. What is it that we do not yet know? What do we have to think and do differently to arrive at urgently different outcomes?[1]

The answers lie not with science, but with culture. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the fundamental principles of “Smart Growth” is to increase residential density by infill in existing areas, and by redeveloping existing residential areas more densely.  The claim is that this will somehow create livable cities, reduce energy requirements and emissions, save farmland, and protect green space. Or, as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency puts it, “density is (an) integral component to the creation of neighborhoods that offer convenience, value and a high quality of life.” http://www.epa.gov/dced/density.htm

Portland, Oregon, is an icon for the smart growth social engineers. In a 2007 article about problems with the Portland harbor http://portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=118825124084524300, the Portland Tribune cites a recent study by the Portland Business Alliance and state agencies which shows that the number of goods passing through Oregon needs to double by 2030 to keep pace with population growth, globalization and expanding markets.  But the harbor and city infrastructure are lagging. Traffic congestion and delays on Portland roads are cited as hindrances to business efficiency, and as a significant factor in increasing business transportation costs. Read the rest of this entry »

It is not racist or misanthropic to try to protect the environment and our children’s natural heritage. Yet that is typically the knee-jerk response to those who point out environmental reasons for halting human population growth.  Those reasons cited include the current human-caused “Sixth Great Extinction,” collapse of ocean fish stocks and other sea life, emissions and pollution affecting our oceans and our weather, soil exhaustion and continued loss of arable land to concrete and asphalt, and water shortages.

The two factors that drive population growth in many developed countries, including Canada, are immigration and the natural population increase. Read the rest of this entry »

By David Suzuki and Faisal Moola
from Georgia Straight e-zine

Life is believed to have arisen on Earth some four billion years ago. DNA probes reveal that humans originated as a species in Africa some 150,000 years ago, which makes us evolutionary infants. For most of our brief time here, we understood that we were deeply embedded in and utterly dependent on nature for our survival and well-being. That reality hasn’t changed, but our perception of it has. Read the rest of this entry »

This was sent to B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell and assorted others on July 4th, 2008 . The population issue is a critical one for anyone who truly wishes to reduce our total consumption of resources, the current record rate of species extinctions, our emissions and pollution, and our general loss of biodiversity and the ecological support systems that allow us to continue to exist on this poor beleaguered planet.

Dear Premier Campbell:

The advertising promoting our shiny new carbon tax claims that, by 2020, the reduction in GHG emissions will be roughly equivalent to removing 800,000 cars from the road (787,000 according to the British Columbia government website).

According to Statistics Canada, British Columbia is growing more rapidly than most other provinces. At the current annual growth rate of 1.4%, British Columbia’s population stands to double within 50 years. In one year, the increase will be about 60,000 people, or about 24,000 households.

At an average of about 1.8 vehicles per household, each year the number of vehicles will increase by approximately 43,200. This means that, by your target year of 2020, the number of vehicles will increase by approximately 520,000. Read the rest of this entry »