Sustainable Population and Economy for Human Well-being

| November 16, 2014 | Leave a Comment

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Date of Publication: November 5, 2014

Year of Publication: 2014

Publication City: Hobart, Tasmania

Publisher: Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania

Author(s): ,

Presented by: Paul Ehrlich and Dick Smith

Overpopulation and our growth-based economic system pose a serious threat to human well-being in many ways, and may be moving civilization towards collapse.

Paul Ehrlich shows how further world population growth will be a major factor in spreading death and misery through increasing climate disruption, polluting the planet, impacting – and possibly destroying – human life-support systems, and increasing the risks of vast Ebola-type epidemics and wars (possibly nuclear) over declining resources.

Dick Smith argues that the hope for ever-growing economies in a finite world is a myth and that we cannot continue to accelerate our use of resources and energy without dire consequences.

Both believe that with world population already at 7.2 billion, and expected to reach 10 billion by mid-century, we are on an unsustainable path that has potentially devastating consequences, especially for the world’s poorest people. Time is rapidly running out to correct our course, yet governments everywhere are failing to respond to the immense challenges that our society faces.

Paul and Dick offer their suggestions for what needs to be done and how concerned citizens can help in moving the world towards a sustainable population and economy.

Watch the event through the webcast below or through the livestream event:

Courtesy of the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania | Hobart, Tasmania

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