Consultation paper now online
The Natural Environment Consultation Paper is now available online. Click here for the web version ready for your comments, or download the PDF by clicking the link below.
The Natural Environment Consultation Paper is now available online. Click here for the web version ready for your comments, or download the PDF by clicking the link below.
June 29th, 2008 at 11:57 am
I believe that much of the degredation is a simply a result of the pressure of excessive human population. It is clearly true that in advanced countries we use more than our share of resources and if everyone used as much as us we would need three planets to supply them. This is sometimes used as an argument to say that we shouldn’t worry about population growth in the third world, but this depends partly on what their aspirations are. In any case degredation of the environment is occuring in third world countries due to overgrazing, deforestation and poor agricultural practices, all of which are a result of population pressures. James Lovelock suggested that with a poulation of two billion it would be possible for everyone to have a decent lifestile without destroying the planet (we would need about one planet instead of three to support a British lifestile!). I think this probably about right but achieving this level of population would be extremely difficult if not impossible. This is not a reason for ignoring this aspect of the problem