From the Woodrow Wilson Center. See http://newsecuritybeat.blogspot.com/2010/10/brian-oneill-population-is-neither.html for a video of a Society of International Journalists panel on population, moderated by Ken Weiss of the Los Angeles Times. In the panel, Brian O’Neill of the National Center for Atmospheric Research states:

Population is Neither a Silver Bullet nor a Red Herring in Climate Problem.

Slower population growth would not solve the climate problem, but it could make a contribution. It is neither a silver bullet nor a red herring,” said Brian O’Neill of the National Center for Atmospheric Research at the annual Society of Environmental Journalists’ conference in Missoula, MT. On Friday, he presented the results of a new demographic study as part of a panel, “Population, Climate, and Consumption,” moderated by Ken Weiss of the Los Angeles Times.
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Thanks to Joe Bish for this article.
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has criticised population control as an “imperialistic project” based on a “humanist and pleasure-seeking” approach to life.

“Propaganda such as ‘do not get married if you’re afraid of poverty’ or ‘low population is key to prosperity’ are among the evil measures to scare people from doing good deeds,” Ahmadinejad said in a meeting today with the managers of the central Yazd province, according to his website.

Iran is better off now with its 75 million population and about 2 million barrels of oil export per day, Ahmadinejad said, compared to the time before the Islamic revolution of 1979. The population was 35 million at the time and Iran exported over 5 million barrels of oil daily, he said.

For full article, visit:
http://www.euronews.net/2011/01/20/iran-raps-population-control-bans-valentine-s-gifts/

Could this be the problem? Thanks to Joe Bish for this article.
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The world population will reach 7 billion in 2011. We take the opportunity to analyze a global company that will profit from the growing world population and growing emerging markets: The Coca-Cola Company (KO). At $62.92, KO is trading at 29.26% from its all-time high of $88.94 reached on July 15, 1998.

The company manufactures, distributes and markets non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups. It also manufactures, or authorizes bottling partners to manufacture, fountain syrups, which it sells to fountain retailers such as restaurants and convenience stores, which use the fountain syrups to produce finished beverages for immediate consumption, or to fountain wholesalers or bottlers, which in turn sell and distribute the fountain syrups to fountain retailers. In addition, it manufactures certain finished beverages, such as juices and juice drinks and water products, which it sells to retailers directly or through wholesalers or other distributors, including bottling partners.

For full article, visit;
http://seekingalpha.com/article/245687-coca-cola-growing-world-population-means-growth-for-the-company

Thanks to James Sinnamon of Australia for this commentary. See http://candobetter.net/node/2342#comment-6019
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The philosophy referred to as cornucopianism should be condemned totally. Beware, however, of accidentally giving cornucopians undeserved credibility whilst seeking to demonstrate their foolishness. They should be shown up as criminals, not fools. Cornucopianism is self-evidently even more intellectually and scientifically bankrupt than, for example, the literal upholding of the book of Genesis or the belief that the earth is flat. No scientifically literate and numerate person could believe that the planet could be better off, instead of worse off, if human population were to grow beyond the current 7 billion, when, for most of human history until barely more than 300 years ago, the number of humans inhabiting the planet was less than 500 million.
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by Valorie M. Allen

Ecocide: the damage, destruction or loss of ecosystems, whether by human agency or other causes.
Legal definition proposed to the UN by International Environmental lawyer, Polly Higgins, in April 2010

Have you ever wondered why we would need to create A NEW WORD to describe the colossal damage we are doing to our ecosystem? Perhaps it is because we have never been as ruthless and abusive to our ecosystem as we are today.
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Thanks to Val Allen for this article.
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Sophie Scholl, a Munich University student, was executed for revealing the truth about the activities of the Nazi authorities; today 20 brave Ratcliffe whistleblowers have been sentenced at Nottingham crown court for plotting to draw attention to the truth of the activities of another German entity. This time, replace the tyranny of the Nazis with the tyranny of the energy giant E.ON.

Scholl and 20 others stood up and took direct non-violent action. Their crime was the dissemination of leaflets highlighting and decrying the tyranny of the Nazi dictatorship. It was a decision to undertake something unlawful – an act that they believed was a necessity – to halt a greater but unnamed crime, a crime that cost many lives. That crime did not, at the time, have a name. But it soon did: genocide.

For full article, visit:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2011/jan/05/ecocide-law-ratcliffe

Thanks to Joe Bish for this article.
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A study that relates global energy use to economic growth, published in the January issue of BioScience, finds strong correlations between these two measures both among countries and within countries over time. The research leads the study’s authors to infer that energy use limits economic activity directly. They conclude that an “enormous” increase in energy supply will be required to meet the demands of projected world population growth and lift the developing world out of poverty without jeopardizing standards of living in most developed countries.

The study, which used a macroecological approach, was based on data from the International Energy Agency and the World Resources Institute. It was conducted by a team of ecologists led by James H. Brown of the University of New Mexico. The team found the same sort of relationship between energy consumption per person and gross domestic product per person as is found between metabolism and body weight in animals. Brown’s group suggests the similarity is real: Cities and countries, like animals, have metabolisms that must burn fuel to sustain themselves and grow. This analogy, together with the data and theory, persuades the BioScience authors that the linkage between energy use and economic activity is causal, although other factors must also be in play to explain the variability in the data.

For full article, visit:
http://www.aibs.org/bioscience-press-releases/110107_study_finds_energy_limits_global_economic_growth.html

UN Secretary General, Ban-Ki Moon has launched an astonishing attack on the current economic system of Western-style capitalsim, saying that it was dangerous and outdated in the light of global warming, and calling for a new economic paradigm.

Recent reports have noted that Ban-Ki Moon has said he will take a hands-off approach to global warming, and many have interpreted this to mean that he will leave it to the scientists and national Governments to decide.

But his latest comments, reported in The Guardian, make it clear that instead Ban-Ki Moon is switching from a narrow focus on global warming to a much wider spectrum attack on the current Western style of capitalism generally, on the grounds that it is not environmentally sustainable.

For full article, visit:
http://hauntingthelibrary.wordpress.com/2011/01/28/un-sec-gen-capitalism-is-environmental-suicide-says-we-need-a-revolution/

Thanks to Peter Seidel for his post at the CASSE website.
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We are currently facing a worldwide recession. Many people cannot find employment, and many things are poorly done or not done at all, because businesses and governments say they don’t have the money to fund them. Political and business leaders keep calling for more growth to get us out of this recession. I am not an economist nor do I have a complete understanding of the economy, nevertheless, like the boy who pointed out that the emperor was naked, I see things that strike me as odd.

Perpetually pursuing growth into the future, in a finite space with limited resources, is impossible. We have already exceeded the level of consumption our planet can sustain. According to the Global Footprint Network it would take 1.5 planets like our own to regenerate all the resources humanity now uses and assimilate our carbon dioxide emissions. If everyone lived like the average American, we would require the resources of almost 5 planets. Instead of growing, we need to scale back. Continued growth is suicide for our species. Now this may sound naïve, but why not employ people who have lost their livelihood to do things that urgently need to be done, and do this in a way that puts us back on the road to sustainability?

For full article, visit:
http://steadystate.org/recession-an-opportunity-we-should-not-pass-up/

Youth in many countries suffer unemployment – no matter what level of education they have. Thanks to Peter Sawyer of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting for this story out of Egypt. See http://pulitzercenter.org/articles/tunisia-riots-revolution-mohamed-bouazizi-arab-worlds-youth-army. Pulitzer has begun a reporting project investigating the driving forces behind the recent upheaval in the Arab world, with a particular focus on the role of demographics. The title of the project is “North Africa: The Young and the Restless” and the reporter is Ellen Knickmeyer, former AP Africa bureau chief and Washington Post Middle East bureau chief. She is traveling across North Africa.
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