Australian businessman Dick Smith has announced a $1 million prize (Australian dollars) to anyone under 30 years of age (worldwide) who can show impressive leadership in communicating an alternative to growth. There is no application form. Instead, those who are interested, should follow Dick Smith’s instructions found at http://www.dicksmithpopulation.com.au/wilberforce-award/ in attempting to win the Wilberforce Award. There are additional instructions on that web page. Here is his message of August 12, 2010.

The Wilberforce Award
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From Zunia.
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All populations, like all individuals, must address issues of age. Unlike people, however, populations can stay young indefinitely and can even grow younger with time. This report is about the ages of populations, how age is structured within populations, why that matters, and how governments and societies can influence population age structure.

The Shape of Things to Come presents evidence that certain age structures in populations can support governments’ efforts to create and maintain political stability, and that others can impede such efforts. This report identifies for the first time four main types of age structures present in current populations: very young, youthful, transitional and mature. Chapters for each structure type describe their basic demographic parameters and the common development challenges and opportunities faced. A quantitative analysis shows that each structure has distinct traits in vulnerability to civil conflict, governance and economic growth.

http://www.populationaction.org/Publications/Reports/The_Shape_of_Things_to_Come/SOTC.pdf

Thanks to Mark O’Connor for this OpEdfrom the Sydney Morning Herald.
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The federal government’s recently released 2010 Intergenerational Report argues that rapid population growth is needed to support an ageing population. It is a claim unsupported by real-world empirical evidence.

The report does include the results of economic modelling purporting to show that lower population growth would mean lower per-capita gross domestic product for Australia, among other ills. Unfortunately, the modelling did not include any environmental parameters, such as the impact of such population growth on greenhouse pollution or water use.

For full article, visit:
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/economic-growth-doesnt-depend-on-more-people-20100225-p3wp.html

Thanks to Rob Dietz for this article by him.
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When I graduated from college, I was trapped underneath a mountain of debt. I had no money in the bank, $25,000 worth of student loans, and an interesting, but low-paying job doing research on economic and environmental policy. I’m sure many students today look at that $25,000 figure longingly, as they struggle with debts upwards of $100,000. But for me, the $25,000 was huge. After adding up rent, food, loan repayment, and other basic expenses, I didn’t have any money left at the end of each month. It became obvious very quickly that I was stuck – I didn’t have something that I truly desired: breathing room.

For full article, visit:
http://steadystate.org/breathing-room-economics/

Thanks to Phil Wollen for this OpEd by Tom Flynn.
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I’m not an economist, and I’ve never played a political scientist on TV.* But I peruse their literatures, and I’m puzzled by how seldom their discussions seem to focus on a problem that I consider desperately important. If I’m wrong-either because the problem is being tackled or because it’s less important than I think-I hope the economists and political scientists among our readers will set me straight.

The problem I have in mind is the ad¬dictive dependence of human eco¬no¬mies and political systems upon growth. Across history, the societies that successfully delivered “the good life” for their members have been societies engaged in growing in terms of population, wealth, physical territory, or natural resources. We associate growth with economic vigor, cultural vibrancy, and advances in human welfare. Stasis, or even growth that’s too slow, heralds malaise. Real shrinkage is often accompanied-or caused-by soc¬ial or economic collapse, military conquest, or epidemic disease.

For full article, visit:
http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=flynn_28_1

Thanks to Brian Czech for his article.
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Ecological economics arose in the final decades of the 20th century out of concerns for
environmental protection and economic sustainability. It was largely a response to a real or
perceived lack of physical and biological underpinnings in neoclassical economics. It was also
intended to infuse economics with a moral philosophy, in contrast with the amoral implications of
neoclassical models portraying man as a rational, utility-maximizing automaton.

Ecological economics is a transdisciplinary endeavor, incorporating and synthesizing concepts and
findings from an array of natural and social sciences. Of particular importance are the laws of
thermodynamics and basic principles of ecology. Limits to economic growth are thoroughly
understood only via the first two laws of thermodynamics. The first law establishes that there is a
limit to the inputs required for economic production, and the second law establishes that there
are limits to the efficiency with which those inputs may be transformed into goods and services.

For full article, visit:
https://docs.google.com/fileview

Brian responded to an article, “Key Issues for Attention by Ecological Economists” by Paul Ehrlich with the following email:

I heartily disagree with the way he classified ecological economics vis-a-vis environmental and natural resources economics/economists. This is an issue I have not only studied and thought about a lot (and wrote about in Shoveling Fuel and elsewhere), but have had much first-hand experience with as a member of ISEE, USSEE, AEA, etc. Therefore, I ask you to post the following UNESCO encyclopedia chapter to your group, preferably including this email as preface: http://steadystate.org/Files/Czech_Ecological_Economics.pdf

There are very good, political and policy-relevant reasons for illuminating the distinction between ecological and env/nr econ, as should be evident in the encyclopedia chapter.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 24, 2010

Contact: Katie Elmore
Director of Communications
Tel: 802-985-8156 ext. 205
elmore@populationmedia.org

Colgate-Palmolive Sponsors UN MDGs Radio Drama Campaign in Papua New Guinea

Port Moresby, PAPUA NEW GUINEA – The United Nations in Papua New Guinea in cooperation with the Population Media Center (PMC) is pleased to announce a groundbreaking partnership with Colgate-Palmolive. Colgate-Palmolive has signed on as a private sector sponsor of two social change radio serial dramas to be developed for public broadcast in Papua New Guinea in Pidgin and English.
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Many thanks to Shiv Khare for this article.
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Every year in India, shanty towns mushroom in the cities, cities sprawl into farmland and the country increases by the population of Australia.

Every day, every minute, on trains and buses, on footpaths and streets, the country squeezes and shrinks and sucks in its breath to push too many people into too little space.

India has fallen behind in the race to meet the Millennium Development Goals for reducing its birth rate by 2015. Only about half of India’s 26 states have reached the targeted level of two children per mother.

For full article, visit:
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/india/100713

Thanks to Fred Stanback, Alexandra Paul, and several others for this New York Times article.

When I first went to India in 1975, they were giving men free radios in return for having a vasectomy. The problem with incentive programs is that paying people to do what they don’t otherwise want to do is less effective than making small family norms popular, and it is far more expensive to take to scale than mass media programs that motivate them to delay and limit childbearing.
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Sunita Laxman Jadhav is a door-to-door saleswoman who sells waiting. She sweeps along muddy village lanes in her nurse’s white sari, calling on newly married couples with an unblushing proposition: Wait two years before getting pregnant, and the government will thank you.

It also will pay you.

For full article, visit:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/world/asia/22india.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

Thanks to Gabriela Kaplan for notifying me about this article. You may want to post a response. It’s not surprising this comes from a real estate writer.
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Shrinking Societies: The Other Population Crisis

The earth’s population is growing at an alarming rate, but in some countries the lack of growth is the biggest problem

A Japanese woman’s role in society is to give birth, and “all we can do is ask them to do their best per head,” said Hakuo Yanagisawa, Japan’s former health minister. His remark, as reported by Bloomberg in 2007, drew criticism for being sexist, but it touches on one of Japan’s most pressing issues: its rapidly aging and shrinking population.

For full article, visit:
http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/aug2010/bw20100812_825983.htm