On Jan 21, 2008 7:19 AM, Greg Davies <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > But Dr Bryan, you can take immense solace from the fact that ecologists = > such as yourself, Dr Shevstov, and Dr Vasishth, who view population = > growth as a non-problem, appear to be in the ESA majority.
You misrepresent my position. (And, for the moment, my honorific -- I'm a grad student. :-) ) Of course overpopulation is a problem. However, population exerts its environmental effects through consumption. We could stabilize population tomorrow and perpetual economic growth would remain as unsustainable as ever. Overpopulation is almost universally recognized as a problem; overconsumption is hardly on the radar screen. Finally, population is stabilizing. This certainly cannot be said of economic growth. To me, all this points to the need for a statement on economic growth (i.e., growth in material and energy throughput). Such a statement should discuss population growth but should not be limited -- or even focused -- on it.
