Population is the World’s Number One Problem, says Kiwi Conservationist

The world is facing a “people population explosion” problem says a New Zealand conservation advocate.

Tony Orman, of Marlborough in the South Island, said while world leaders gathered over issues like global warming and climate change, the basic cause of people and world population growth was ignored.

“The proverbial butcher, the baker, the candle stick maker, even scientists, cannot agree on global warming. But when ‘the tumult and the shouting dies and the Captains and the Kings depart’ there remains one rarely debated factor – peopled. The world’s population is increasing by 80 million a year and currently is approaching 7.5 billion.”

Strangely the contribution of people to global warming had been ignored. Instead politicians and bureaucrats had tossed up scapegoats either as a deliberate diversion, or perhaps out of sheer ignorance or a reluctance to focus on the cause of human impact on global warming. Referring to New Zealand he said governments had tried to blame dairy cows while one New Zealand bureaucrat, the head of New Zealand’s Conservation Department, tried to blame wild deer for “farting and belching.”

“That’s bizarre, irresponsible and ignorant. Animals can’t argue back in defence, people do. Deer and cows don’t vote but people do. Therein lies the cause of the problem.

Humans or more particularly numbers of people, are the primary cause,” said Tony Orman, who has had 24 books published many on the outdoors.

“People fart and belch just like cows and deer. Furthermore people drive cars which belch emissions and jet planes fart gases and particles — which contribute to climate change. Humans demand resources, flush toilets, use chemicals and throw away garbage. Deer and cows don’t. The more people the greater demand for resources, more cars and planes – more emissions.”

He said any environmental problem was simply symptomatic not the root cause. Population pressure on resources and the environment were nothing new. Controversial US author Paul Erlich warned about the people crisis in his book “The Population Bomb” published in 1968 – almost half a century ago. And in New Zealand about the same time as Erlich, there were warnings from a few enlightened environmentalists such as “Save Manapouri” conservationist and deerstalkers association president the late John B Henderson who wrote in a speech “surely we cannot argue for there being any virtue in further proliferating the hordes of humanity?”

Western countries like New Zealand and Australia should be seriously addressing the ticking “population time bomb”. Reducing birth rates in “affluent/effluent” industrialised countries will have a bigger impact on greenhouse gas emissions, depleted resources and environmental erosion because affluent societies use more of the earth’s resources and depend more heavily on fossil fuels. Even the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) briefly commented acknowledging that “Globally, economic and population growth continued to be the most important drivers of increases in CO2 emissions from fossil fuels.” But that was lost in the clouds of hot air emitted by politicians and world leaders in the global warming debate he said.

Referring to his home country of New Zealand Tony Orman said the hot air emitted reached hyperbolic heights while recent decades of politicians had blithely boasted of GDP and population growth rates seeming oblivious and unconcerned New Zealand’s population was approaching five million. Five million was significant for in 1970, New Zealand conservationist John Henderson said “it is high time New Zealanders set themselves an upper limit — I have no hesitation in tabling my own estimate – it is 5 million people.”

But New Zealand still had no population policy. Government pursued growth with a maniacal passion and no control. “Maximum growth – more people” was and still is the mantra. Serious regional imbalances existed, most graphically illustrated by New Zealand’s Auckland city busting at the seams, demanding more money for congested roads and building highways, upgrading of sewers and stormwaters etc., and sprawling outwards over fertile soils.

Immigration proceeded apace swelling numbers and diluting and eroding the Kiwi culture evolved from two ethnic groups in Europeans and Maori merging to develop a bi-cultural society.

“All that’s needed to address the spiraling crisis is political will and political guts. Amazingly the Green Party who you might expect to champion addressing the population bomb have been relatively quiet. Only another New Zealand political party NZ First has drawn attention to immigration.”

But the sharp reality was more people and more consumers equalled increasing and greater resource demand, forced more costly infrastructure demand and more emissions.

“More, more and more. The planet cannot tolerate infinite growth. It’s already at a crisis,” said Tony Orman.

*Tony Orman (MNZIS) is a former town planner, conservationist (‘wise use of resources’), journalist and author of 24 books.

• Chris Harries in Comments: … I would like to see a constructive, comprehensive and realistic set of population policies that spells out the issue and details such things as appropriate reforms of taxation and welfare law and mandates on family size and education and how to deal with the practical problem of the ageing of our society and compassion for displaced peoples in the world. Nobody ever seems to produce one. Without such a consolidated position the issue will remain as a populist mantra.