Chris ~

2714 days ago

If the Ecological Footprint concept is correct, our population cannot continue to grow much more without resulting in significant global impoverishment, along with the social instability that implies.

Conclusion

This assessment says nothing about how we might get to a sustainable situation with a reasonable standard of living. Most people are not in favour of limits to either their child-bearing or their consumption, at least if the limits are imposed by policy and legislation. Given that, we are reduced to nibbling around the edges of the problem.

It seems to me as though this nibbling must consist of improving our food production practices, decarbonizing our economies, improving the energy intensity of our economies, promoting lower fertility rates whenever and however we can, but above all promoting drastically lower-consumption lifestyles in the rich nations.

The numbers are clear – the limits to growth in both consumption and population seem to be here.

The Footprints of Consumption

paulchefurka.ca

A fairly common belief among western environmental activists is that “overpopulation is causing our ecological overshoot”. It’s a simple idea to present, as it just requires people to accept that more people cause more environmental damage.