Sustainable Development An Oxymoron Claims Overpopulation Campaigner

May 22nd marked the UN’s International Day for Biological Diversity, this year themed as ‘Harmony with nature and sustainable development‘.

But according to Michael Bayliss, Communications Manager and Spokesperson for Sustainable Population Australia (SPA), the chosen theme title demonstrates ignorance of two fundamental facts.

“Firstly, like all living creatures, humans are very much a part of nature and are the driving force for declining diversity of life on the planet,” states Bayliss. “Secondly, sustainable development is an oxymoron as unlimited growth on a planet with finite resources is impossible”.

As Michael Bayliss points out: “In a 2017 Scientists’ Warning to Humanity, 15,364 researchers cautioned that rapid population growth is a primary driver behind many ecological and even social threats”.

This Warning to Humanity cautioned that ‘by failing to adequately limit population growth… humanity is not taking the urgent steps needed to safeguard our imperilled biosphere’.

One notable casualty of an ever-growing human population has been the ocean’s fish stocks, according to SPA National President, Peter Strachan.

“85% of global fisheries have been fished out or are in catastrophic, terminal decline,” says Strachan.

Peter Strachan goes on to say: “All six of the world’s most pressing ecological challenges: deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions and resultant climate change, biodiversity loss, fishery depletion, water scarcity, and soil degradation, are driven by the impacts of ever-expanding human population numbers.”

Strachan also addresses the myth of declining population growth.

“While some claim that global population growth is slowing down, this simply isn’t true. For example, it has only taken 12 years for our population to increase by another one billion, to our current population of 8.2 billion,” he states.

Strachan adds: “Rapid population pressures contribute to massive food insecurity, with one in eleven people globally and one in five in Africa still facing hunger or routinely suffering from insufficient calories. In most future scenarios that include population growth, food shortages are expected to intensify by 2050”.

According to Peter Strachan, since the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development in 1994, the global environmental movement has largely shied away from addressing the main cause of biodiversity loss.

“Instead, they focus on symptoms, like climate change, air, water, light and noise pollution, and an accelerating pace of plant and animal extinctions,” he says. “In a world where 45% of pregnancies are unplanned, this blindness to cause and effect, reduces focus on the need for universal access to family planning”.

The SPA President adds, “Recently the impact of demographic pressures has been associated with a host of other social maladies, from psychological stress, depression and violence to traffic congestion and disease”.

Current research by Stamford University highlights that overpopulation causes substantial and potentially irreversible environmental impacts that cannot be ignored if international sustainability policy is to be effective.

According to Michael Bayliss: “This means global access to family planning and reproductive health services. In countries such as Australia, we must stop using immigration as our main tool to prop up GDP”.

Submitted by Friends of Retha


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