Hi All, On 04/03/14 22:13, Russell Coker wrote: ...
According to the CIA we have a birth rate of 1.77 children per woman which is significantly less than the ~2.1 that would be needed to maintain the population.
If Australia is going to maintain it's current population then we have to have some migration. ...
Why in the world would we need to maintain Australia's current population, especially in the face of global warming negatively impacting on our ability to produce food for consumption and export? Just because Chambers of Commerce chant "growth, growth, growth" (so that any member who can walk and chew gum at the same time can run a viable business) doesn't mean we need to heed that call. When a country needs to create desalination plants in most of its major cities just to survive, and has 2 of the world's 10 least affordable cities, it's really time to seriously consider that our population is already =too= high. I very highly recommend Jared Diamond's book "Collapse". If you're in a rush, then just Part 4 (Practical Lessons). If you're really in a rush, then just Chapter 16 (The World as a Polder: What Does it All Mean to Us Today). Read somewhere that a minimum of 10,000,000 humans died of malnutrition last year. 7,000,000,000 people (and still doubling every 70 years) is not an ecosystem that I think needs maintaining. Cheers, Carl