Serious, interconnected risks are closing in on the globalised community, from climate change to anarchy. Are we heeding the warnings?
AAP/EPA/Daniel Deme
In that world of peripheral vision, essential for business, social and political leaders, it is surprising that the World Economic Forum’s report, Global Risks 2012 has not received greater publicity or…
Difficult austerity: Bangladesh, where on average it takes 130 women to match the carbon footprint of one American woman.
AAP/EPA/Mufty Fire
In any discussion of the world’s environmental problems, someone will always argue that the core problem is that the world has too many people. Cliff Hooker has recently named it “the elephant in the room…
Sydney needs sustainable solutions to keep its growing population happy and healthy.
Franklin Heijnen
Australia’s future population is again under the spotlight. The Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) has just released a new report on Australian population futures.
And focus has sharpened…
Our teeming attack on the natural world threatens to turn the wilderness into a fetish item.
AAP/The Wilderness Society
Elephants in the room, part one
For all our schemes and mantras about making this or that part of our lives environmentally “sustainable”, humanity’s assault on the planet not only continues but expands…
Australia's regional migration scheme has had encouraging outcomes.
amandabhslater
Since 1995, there has been a concerted government policy push encouraging new migrants to settle away from the major cities.
The Federal Government has ramped this up further, announcing in the 2011 Federal…
In northern Australia, the state of the environment has improved.
pallotron/Flickr
Every five years the Australian Government must report on how our environment and heritage are fairing. The 2011 State of the Environment Report gives Australians the clearest and most comprehensive assessment…
'Generation' is a slippery concept. More research is needed to tell real people's stories.
Flickr/Mickey van der Stap
Generational difference is one of the major issues of our time. Game shows like Talkin’‘bout Your Generation assume that Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y contestants have very different attitudes and knowledge…
The world's population is racing ahead compared to growth in the rest of the world.
AAP/Dean Lewins
SEVEN BILLION PEOPLE: As the global population passed the seven billion mark yesterday (give or take a few months – the data aren’t exact), Australia’s resident population will reach about 22.75 million…
Women will be the key to dealing with the growth in population.
Flickr/PhotograTree
SEVEN BILLION PEOPLE: I had better write fast. Sometime between my deadline to submit this story and the time it goes live, the estimated world population will exceed 7 billion for the first time ever…
More children are ending up in orphanages as population rises.
Jeffreylowy/Flickr
SEVEN BILLION PEOPLE: Today the Earth’s population has reached 7 billion.
With so many of us here now, there is no better time to reflect on the world we want and how we can create it.
Some of us are…
Every new person is a new consumer of resources.
World Resources
SEVEN BILLION PEOPLE: In the early 1970s, three leading American scientists were locked in a passionate debate about what had made the greatest contribution to humanity’s impact on the environment.
The…
South-east Queensland now has a 200km long city.
dazza17-DJ
Despite the emphasis in Australia on the “compact city” foreshadowed in every major strategic metropolitan plan such as the South East Queensland Regional Plan; there is a growing trend towards “colliding…
If we keep going the way we are, Australia's environment will be in trouble in 2050.
adriansalamandre/Flickr
AUSTRALIA 2050 – There’s no way of predicting what the environment will be like in 2050, but there are many possibilities. I will sketch out two extremes.
The first is bleak.
The first independent national…
The Census is useful and important. Governments and policy makers remain dependent upon the information it provides to govern responsibly.
Beyond being a simple count of people and assets, contemporary…
Too many people? It's hard to say without looking at our lifestyle.
Tony.../Flickr
Population policy discussions in Australia fall well short of confronting the core questions. We cannot even ask “what is a sustainable population?” until we look at our unsustainable lifestyles and the…
Australians over-consume water, energy and space.
AAP
By Peter Newton, Swinburne University of Technology
In recent weeks, two major federal government strategy papers have been released:
Our Cities, Our Future: A National Urban Policy for a Productive, Sustainable and Liveable Future and
Sustainable Australia…
Melbourne and Sydney are set to become mega-cities, but there hasn't been a coherent discussion about our population.
AAP/Torsten Blackwood
The national debate about Australia’s population has been hijacked. It has been dominated by fears that we don’t have the infrastructure to cope with an influx of people, and differing views about migrants…
Australia needs professional migrants to fill skills gaps.
AAP/David Crosling
Australia has been a nation of immigrants since 1788. It has always sought additions to its population to increase its prosperity and economic strength.
But two recent controversies have distracted us…
How many more people do we need to plan for?
emmettanderson/Flickr
On May 13 2011, the federal government released its eagerly awaited population strategy, Sustainable Australia – Sustainable Communities. But in avoiding population projections, the strategy is selling…
Australian cities are bearing the brunt of population growth.
AAP/Greg Wood
Carbon tax or not, Australia’s emissions will keep rising, driven by rapid rates of population growth and increasing affluence. Most of the carbon is domestic but we also own the carbon that China and…
Choked: Lagos crumbles under the weight of its population
AAP/Pius Utomi Ekpei
We are entering an era of massive population transfer – a rural exodus of unprecedented proportions. In Asia and Africa farmers and peasants are being lured to mega-cities. This brings myriad benefits…
Building away from our cities could ease congestion in urban areas
AAP
Bashing planning has become a national sport, and in NSW, we’re the best at it. Stuck in traffic? Blame the planners. Housing stress? Planners are too slow and too stingy with land release.
In the perception…
International students are not fuelling immigration as much as first thought.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
If you’re in politics, population matters. Rival studies on what constitutes a sustainable Australian population project wildly different statistics. But behind the figures are real people whose lives…
