http://candobetter.org/node/679

Finally, something sensible and well-written to counteract the marketing horrors of the growth merchants. MarkO'Connor and Bill Lines’s next prose book on the topic Overloading Australia is due out in late 2008  from Enviro Books, Australia. O'Connor hass co-authored with William Lines (whose latest book is Patriots, a history of the Australian conservation movements).

Australia’s population is rising at 1.6% a year, faster than Indonesia next door, and one of the fastest rates in Asia.

Australia is not actually "in Asia"; it's a separate continent in its own right. To assert that Australia is a part of Asia is to not only make a geographically false statement, it is to parrot one of the favourite arguments used by immigration enthusiasts.

Australia IS a continent in its own right and a nation with a people, landscape, culture and environment unlike that of any Asian nation.

Interesting site Grendel, particularly the replacement rate fallacy - which states....  In fact to keep stable and just replace itself, a relatively young population like Australia’s would currently need something even lower than Western Europe’s rate of around 1.3 children per completed family. More like 0.93. And that’s without immigration!

There is a lot of information online similar to the above, but it's just common sense and why our governments have encouraged more births is beyond reason.

Most of the researchers seem to go back to the same old theme - stop immigration - we just can't afford it. This is an old article from the Environmental Magazine .... but even in 1998 there were concerns about overpopulation and since then our population has grown by nearly 4 million and is still increasing rapidly along with the degradation of the environment which we rely so heavily on for sustenance.

A majority of the public believes that Australia is, in fact, unable to sustainably support a large human population. The main problem lies in the generally inhospitable and fragile nature of the continent itself, which tends to contradict the image of large spaces waiting to be settled.

The driest of all vegetated continents, Australia's total runoff of water is well short of the runoff from the Mississippi River alone. The landscape is also an inhibitor. No less than 70 percent of the continent is considered arid or semi-arid, with few permanent rivers, unpredictable rainfall and ancient soils.

On top of that, Australia is facing severe environmental problems, with intense agriculture and deforestation causing widespread salinity, desertification and soil erosion. Just seven percent of the original vegetation remains, writes population expert Paul Ehrlich, and the removal of native trees has greatly disrupted the normal water cycle and dramatically reduced the amount of arable land. "Our highly evolved ecosystems are extremely fragile," reports Dr. Tim Flannery of the Australian Museum in his book The Future Eaters.

"We've been overtaxing the land for so long there's no more 'give' in our ecosystems" warns botanist Dr. Mary White. She believes Australia may already be overpopulated, and suggests 13 million as an appropriate figure.

Immigration, rather than natural fertility, has been the primary engine behind Australia's rapid population growth, particularly in the 1980s, when annual influx climbed above 100,000. The anti-immigration talk has brought charges of racism forth, but Australia's aboriginal population, expected to number no more than 350,000 by the year 2001, is also concerned about being overwhelmed by what it calls "totally unsustainable" population growth.

"Reducing immigration would only be racist if it was cut in a racially selective way, instead of across the board," says Australians for an Ecologically Sustainable Population.

A 1994 report prepared for Australia's Labor government found that over 90 percent of the public called for either stabilizing or reducing the population.

The last figures I saw on the aboriginal population were 200,000 and it is immigration which has climbed to 350,000 per year - not even taking into consideration the large families they produce.

Link:

Population and sustainability


Quote:

Australia is not actually "in Asia"; it's a separate continent in its own right. To assert that Australia is a part of Asia is to not only make a geographically false statement, it is to parrot one of the favourite arguments used by immigration enthusiasts.

Sounds like a bit of a red herring to me. I've never known anyone to get confused about what the claim to be part of Asia really means.


Quote:

In fact to keep stable and just replace itself, a relatively young population like Australia’s would currently need something even lower than Western Europe’s rate of around 1.3 children per completed family. More like 0.93. And that’s without immigration!

That would not lead to stability at all. In fact it would lead to an eventual aging of the population and the risk of a sudden drop, requiring a short term birth rate of about 3 to make up for it.


Quote:

Most of the researchers seem to go back to the same old theme - stop immigration - we just can't afford it.

Immigration is good from an economic perspectice. Immigrants tend to be harder working and create more jobs than they 'take'.


Quote:

The anti-immigration talk has brought charges of racism forth, but Australia's aboriginal population, expected to number no more than 350,000 by the year 2001, is also concerned about being overwhelmed by what it calls "totally unsustainable" population growth.

That does not in any way diminish the claims of racism.


Quote:

A 1994 report prepared for Australia's Labor government found that over 90 percent of the public called for either stabilizing or reducing the population.

Good news.

Does anyone know what percentage of our immigrants are Muslims or from rpedominantly Muslim countries?

All quotes from the Greenies fd...  I suggest you take up any comprehension problems you have with them


I agree with them BTW.  We are NOT part of Asian and never have been.  Someone might like to tell Paul Keating that.

What are quotes from the greenies?

I believe I said...   ALL

All of what? You've stopped making sense again Grendel. You should stop assuming people know what you are trying to say, even if you don't actually say it.

Islam should be destroyed if world is to become better.
abu proved that himself by his idiotic banning of opposite view points.

good grief..

ALL the quotes you decided to comment on were written by the Greenies who wrote the book and they were quoted in the opening post under the link...  if you bothered to follow the link to the information you'd have known that.

Why do I bother?

Who said/wrote them?

oh dear...  do the words click on the link mean anything to you?

It's just odd that you refer to them with such a vague term, yet imply it is some kind of validation.

Why are you being so obtuse FD?

It is perfectly straight forward, it is the ACF, and some independent authors, who happen to be making the same point, ie; immigration needs to be more restricted than it currently is.

Now I do not necessarily agree with their arguments, but I can assure you that from what I have read, and interviews I have heard, their is absolutely no racial element involved in any of their arguments, which is why I assume you are grilling Grendel about it, because of his usual anti-multiculturalist position, you expect a racial aspect to be involved.

No I was just trying to figure out what Grendel was on about.

Seems mantra and Mozz didn't have your difficulty fd.