By now it would seem beyond doubt that global warming is a reality and a serious problem. Precisely how much of it can be attributed to human activity and how much to natural causes may be open to debate. There is also mass starvation and violent aggression, manifesting in our part of the world as increasing road rage, glassing incidents and drunken parties that deteriorate into public brawls, and one can also think of various reasons and remedies for these.

But we are refusing to see the obvious — that six billion human beings cannot continue to foul, decimate and exploit the planet the way we are doing without causing dramatic and disastrous consequences for it and ourselves. Precisely what those consequences might be is also open to speculation and debate, but keeping in mind that the six billion is expected to be nine billion by 2050 and twelve billion soon after, the real problem should be obvious.

Global warming, and so many of our other problems are but symptoms of the HUMAN POPULATION EXPLOSION, which is beyond any doubt or debate, and until we face up to and tackle that, we are wasting our time and effort by treating symptoms and not the cause.

Dmitri Perno
Buderim

Unsustainable growth may see the "coastline covered in concrete all the way from Victoria to the Queensland border". Image greghardwick.com.au

Dear Madam Premier,

Recently I had a short and enjoyable holiday in Noosa but was dismayed to read in the local papers of the plans by the Minister for Infrastructure to “reform” planning approvals and the possibility of development in the ‘Wild Horse’ mountain region.

This is a process distinctly similar to that carried out in New South Wales with devastating consequences.  You may recall that a previous Premier of NSW, Bob Carr, warned of the danger of growth that would see the coastline covered in concrete all the way from Victoria to the Queensland border.  Unfortunately his warnings have been ignored and many pristine coastal locations, as well as inland regions, have been overwhelmed by housing developments. Along with development booms came the apparently inevitable political corruption which tainted members of both local and state governments — none more bizarre than the scandal that rocked the Wollongong council.

New South Wales has “enjoyed” a housing boom which we are repeatedly told will rescue the economy and yet this State government is on the verge of economic collapse. It cannot fund necessary infrastructure and is selling off government assets, even the State lottery, as well as schools, parks and police stations. This state is probably the worst off because Sydney has suffered the fastest population growth and as a consequence the government has been unable to maintain even essential services.  Some of the state’s best agricultural land is being swallowed by urban sprawl, forcing growers to move into more marginal land with higher transport costs.

” The Australian Bureau of Statistics puts the value of our soils as diminishing by $300 million every year”

They also suffer the double blow of having governments put cities ahead of rural areas for water allocations.

It has also been estimated by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics that traffic congestion now costs the nation $21 billion per year and there is no likelihood that this will improve while population growth outstrips expenditure on services. At the same time, because growth in road transport outstripped our oil supply capacity, we now must import an ever increasing amount, often from unreliable sources.

The cost of imported fuel has been estimated to rise to $30 billion by 2012 and this estimate was made before the current price rises and the governments expanded immigration program.

Because of the structure of the housing industry more than one million people are considered to be in housing stress, that is, they are paying 30 per cent or more of their income in house repayments.  The number of homeless people continues to rise as do the number of personal bankruptcies, and largely due to housing repayments, Australia’s personal debt is over one trillion dollars — higher on a per capita basis than the US and the very mechanism that provoked the current economic collapse.

Perhaps even more disturbing is the view of Prof. Fiona Stanley, the child-welfare scientist and 2003 Australian of the year. Her findings provide a direct connection between child and adolescent health problems and the economy. According to her data, one in five parents are unfit for the task of raising children because they are overworked or otherwise stressed.

A quick appraisal of other country’s economic positions shows that those with high levels of housing growth, like Iceland and Spain, suffered the worst in this collapse, something that should not be surprising since all previous economic collapses were related to housing bubbles that burst.

However, events since 2007 should make it obvious that there is something terribly wrong with a system that fails so dramatically and does so about every 20 years.  What is also apparent is that costs for services and infrastructure, are increasing and doing so faster than any revenue gain from growth.

“The national  infrastructure deficit is almost $90 billion“

We have therefore an economic system that is operating as a type of pyramid scheme, with input as GDP artificially structured to obscure its inherent real costs.  It has been suggested by many that what is wrong is the twentieth century “neoclassical” economics which has misinterpreted or ignored the more philosophical approach of earlier economic thought.

Today in a typical introductory textbook (Ekelund and Tollison 1988:147), students read that:

“The overall goal of macro-economic policy is the achievement of economic stabilisation … to attain maximum economic growth in the present and future.”

Economics thus became a science geared toward justifying and facilitating the pursuit of wealth by individuals and nations. In perhaps its most radical departure from the classicists it adopted the assumption that there is no limit to economic growth, an absurdity echoed by the previous Prime Minister shortly before his ignominious defeat.

More importantly it should be now obvious that the foundation of conservative economics, growth and implicit belief in market forces, is illogical and the common factor in economic and environmental failures that have beset our country for many years.  So great has been the faith in these economic principles that successive governments have been unwilling to contemplate that many industries like gambling, liquor and tobacco actually cost the community far more than they return in the way of increased revenue.

“Gambling and the liquor industry are the worst, the later costs the public $7.6 billion per year, causes untold loss of human potential by brain impairment and is responsible for 40 per cent of police work”

These however pale into insignificance when compared to the “junk” food industry that is largely responsible for the epidemic of youth obesity that will swamp our already over-stressed health care system.

“According to Access Economics there will be 7 million obese by 2025, and it already costs the nation over $20 billion annually”

Apparently the minor increase in GDP created by the food industry was considered more important than the health of the people.

One also has to ask what type of economic fanatic would promote population growth at a time when Queensland is subjected to increasing storm intensity.  Victoria and South Australia are drying out, NSW is regularly 70 per cent drought effected, the Murray Darling system that used to produce a third of our food, has collapsed, and climate change will further decimate our agricultural industry.

All this and we still have governments allowing mining and housing developments in those areas that appear to be safe from drought.

“To rank some abstract number like GDP as more important than food production must be the highest of all absurdities especially when it should be obvious that despite, or because of continued population growth, our per capita GDP is declining”

The fallacy of an economic system relying on growth is the subject of a report in the New Scientist magazine (Issue 2678 October 15, 2008) where a cross section of experts from fields including economics, law, and philosophy all conclude that conservative economics has failed society.

These opinions are by no means isolated there has been a growing chorus of criticism from economists. Alan Ramsay, Clive Hamilton Steve Keen and Ross Gittens have all spoken out on several occasions, (while internationally George Soros  author of The Bubble of American Supremacy,  Nassim Taleb author of the Black Swan and most recently John Talbot author of the 86 Lies), to politicians, including the Premier of NSW, as they observe the deterioration  of our cities, smothered under the weight of population growth.

So serious are the findings that I request you examine this report as a matter of urgency, and if its findings cannot be refuted you must abandon the reliance on growth that is not only damaging our nation, but threatens the world’s ability to combat climate change .

I look forward to your response in the near future.

Yours faithfully,

Don Owers
Dudley, NSW

As a long time “greenie” I generally agree with and applaud the content(s) of Eco but with the passing years and the worsening global situation I am beginning to see it all as an exercise in futility for one simple reason. We a refusing to acknowledge and face, let alone take any effective action, about the underlying cause for most of our problems — the human population explosion.

Sure, its good to preserve animal habitats, to preserve our rivers and forests, but until we understand where the pressures for their destruction are coming from, and deal with that, we are facing an uphill battle.

The simple fact is that we have a growing population which needs more housing and infrastructure, which needs a growing economy to pay for it, which needs a growing population to support it, which needs more housing and infrastructure, etc, etc.

We are on an upward spiral and we cannot change any one of the parameters without drastically affecting the others (a decrease in the birth rate would increase the problems of an ageing population, for example).

But even with far more efficient use of resources this upward spiral obviously cannot continue indefinitely on a finite world, and the longer it is allowed to continue the more drastic will be the consequences for humanity and for the planet.

I am, now 74 and had hoped to be long gone before such drastic changes eventuate, but with the increasing rate at which the consequences of the growing population are becoming apparent, I am no longer so sure, even about that!

Dmitri Perno

Why pollute the drinking water with an enzyme poison higher on the poison scale than lead?

The question every Queenslander should be asking is: What is Fluoride? Fluoride is a chemical substance made from the waste sludge formed during the production of pesticides. Fluoride is an enzyme poison. Enzyme poisons react with all glands in the body, especially with the thyroid gland.

Flouride also has the cumulative effect which means that our bodies do not have a system to get rid of these toxins, they therefore accumulate and stay in our bodies throughout our lifetime. Fluoride is higher on the poison scale than lead.

Where is the scientific evidence that this enzyme poison reduces tooth decay? There is no scientific evidence.  It does not exist. Why not? No scientific experiments have ever been performed. Because there are too many variables in the human population that cannot be controlled.

However, scientific experiments have been performed in laboratories using animals and there is positive proof that fluoride causes cancer. Therefore fluoride is called a carcinogen. There is no scientific evidence that fluoride affects tooth decay. Why does this myth persist and who is promoting it?

The pesticide industry, selling their toxic waste sludge is worth billions and billions of dollars. Before EPA laws came into existence the pesticide industry was able to dump their toxic waste sludge into the river systems. After the EPA laws the pesticide industry had to find solutions to getting rid of this waste sludge. Monsanto Dow Chemical conceived the idea and hatched plan to sell their waste sludge to the unsuspecting public, therefore a powerful, well-paid lobby was hired to get the message out that fluoride is good for dental health.

The lobby wines, dine and bribes governmental officials who become pawns and perpetuate the myth that fluoride is beneficial to dental health. The taxpayers subsidises the multi-national corporations the pesticide industry by supplying and maintaining the machinery to pollute the drinking water with an enzyme poison. How good is that for the multi-national corporation? Who can give their CEOs billions in perks? The hapless helpless taxpayers pay and pay.

Marie Besler

Buddina, QLD

What a sad day for all Queenslanders when Premier Anna Bligh decreed that every man, woman and child will be forced to ingest fluoridated drinking water. Fluoride is a highly toxic chemical substance made from the waste product during the manufacture of insecticides. Scientific studies, with all the variables controlled, have been performed in laboratories and there is proof that fluoride is highly toxic and causes cancer in animals. No scientific studies in the human population have ever been done, because there are too many variables in humans, which cannot be controlled.

Why spend millions of dollars of taxpayer’s money to build machinery to pollute the drinking water with a known carcinogen? Fluoride is a highly toxic chemical substance that also has a cumulative effect, which means that the human body does not have a system to rid the body of ingested fluoride toxins. Consequently the fluoride accumulates and remains in our bodies throughout the lifetime. With clever media management, the general public has been led to believe that a cancer-causing chemical is good for our health.

Who are the players in this scheme? The dental association knows that a few drops of fluoride and a few minutes of time to apply it to the teeth generate a charge of $65, which is good for business. Monsanto, the giant in the insecticide industry also benefits, their highly toxic waste product is sold to the unsuspecting public. Also good for business and the bottom line, Anna Bligh jumped on the dental association bandwagon without checking all the facts. In a free democratic country no one should be forced to ingest a known carcinogen.

Marie Besler
Buddina Beach

I wanted to write on behalf of my family and express our appreciation at having such a great newspaper as ECO on the Sunshine Coast. The paper reflects our concerns about the environment and yet provides balanced comment and most importantly ecologically sustainable ideas and solutions to some of the most pressing environmental concerns.

Julie Wilson-Hirst
Mooloolah Valley