18,000 years ago Canada was covered with a three-kilometre thick ice-sheet. That's a mere blink in geological time. Millions of years ago the Arctic was a tropical swamp with crocodiles and 200-foot high redwoods. Has anyone thought about that? Come what may, there is climate change ahead. Some of us actually believe that this global warming may trigger the next Ice Age. Wouldn't that be cool. (And ironic?)
Regardless of our best efforts, the pendulum is going to swing away from the comfortable range that we now enjoy. I'd get used to that idea and not sweat it so much. We might just adapt. But we won't adapt to biodiversity loss. That's the one that will finish us, but it's not sexy enough to talk about.
And speaking of sweating, if you really would like to cut CO2 emissions then wear a condom. It's the ever-increasing population of humans on the planet that threatens our future. Them's the facts. You can't have it both ways. More people means more consumption of both energy and material. Pollution follows right behind.
Over-population is not a global problem. It is the sum total of 194 national problems. You can't grow your population by 18% over 17 years and expect as Canada does to cut GHG emissions by 6% over that same period. Tony Blair failed to meet his GHG target for much the same reason. When Australia increased its population by 30% since 1990, its GHG emissions increased by 31%. Now the Diesendorf report released by Greenpeace warns that Australia must severely restrict immigration to fight global warming. The Australian Conservation Foundation concurs. Does its North American counterpart see the light? Not in your life.
As with all of its environmental preoccupations, the Sierra Club misses the point on climate change. By focusing on "personal commitments" and personal "choices", on greener lifestyles and renewable technologies, they ignore the largest factor in environmental degradation: population growth. By taking the "P" out of Paul Ehrlich's time trusted "IPAT" formula they make nonsense out of a comprehensive understanding of the issue. To understand why they have done so, one need only google "David Gelbaum, Carl Pope, Paul Watson". They don't understand because billionaire Gelbaum has paid them NOT to understand. Sierra Club members are only dupes.
There is no technological solution to population growth. For example, all the energy gains made by a 900 acre solar panel farm near Sarnia, Ontario will be wiped out by the increased consumption brought on by just 22 days of immigration. Technical improvements and/or reduced consumption are the Labour of Sisyphus in the face of runaway population growth that makes Canada the fastest growing nation of the G8 group. What sense does it make to cut our energy consumption in half but turn around and double our population? The futile enterprise recalls Kenneth Boulding's Second Theorem: technical improvement can only relieve misery for a while, then it will enable population to grow, and simply allow more people to live in misery than before. Yet that seems to be the Green-environmentalist slogan: "let's have more and more people consuming less and less."
Al Gore was wrong. We don't need more "green" consumers. We need "fewer" consumers. And the greenest consumer is the one who doesn't get born or arrive here at the airport to dump 23 metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year. Fewer consumers consuming less must be our goal.
"I have no doubt the fundamental problem the planet faces is the enormous increase in the human population" Sir David Attenborough
"Population growth is the principle cause of environmental damage." Jacques Cousteau
Tim Murray
Quadra Island BC
Canada V0P 1N0
October 22, 2007.
See also www.immigrationwatchcanada.org
Add comment