You are right, Ludwig. I am reminded of a New Scientist article some years ago about factory farming in Britain and how the farm animals are exempted from the animal cruelty laws. It came to the conclusion that nothing would change because cheap meat kept the poor people quiet and the politicians in power. More and more people simply dig us deeper into a pit where unsustainable practices can't be addressed because to do so would cut living standards.

rc needs to also consider the effects of more and more people on life in the cities. Species that were once abundant disappearing from fish markets. Shrinking block sizes, with a modest house in Sydney costing 10 years of average wages instead of 2 as in the 1960s. Permanent water restrictions, with people encouraged to spy on their neighbours. Long stressful commuting to work. Deteriorating infrastructure and public services because public money is being diverted into growth infrastructure. More and more monitoring and petty restrictions of all sorts on what we can say or do...

An even greater Australia Day reality fix

Chumley,

Thank you for responding to my comment about population, as most people simply don't want to know. In fact, you could say that the only issue on which the UN, Muslims, Conservative Christians, and almost all politicians are united is that we must have an endless, continuing unrestrained increase in population. Simple facts of arithmetic tell you that if the population grows x percent, then the production of all essentials must grow by at least x percent for people to just maintain their standard of living. If you think about it, each time an immigrant from the third world migrates to the first world the level of output, pollution, and everything else will increase. If I had my way our foreign aid would be entirely directed towards the education of young women in the third world, as there is a direct correlation between education and the number of children they bear. The only country that has done anything about this is China, and more credit to them. If you wish to see other posts of mine on this subject I suggest you go to the User Index.