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The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
  • Conservation Learning Exchange Highlights Climate, Energy, Population, Poverty

    October 15, 2008 By Rachel Weisshaar
    The Nature Conservancy’s first Conservation Learning Exchange, or ConEx, concludes tomorrow in Vancouver, Canada. It focuses on six themes: climate change and energy; poverty, population growth, and consumerism; ecosystem services; science and technology; working with others; and values and society. You can read more about the goings-on on the ConEx blogs. A sampling from today: “People, poverty and diversity are major themes running throughout this conference and the underlying buzz from the ballrooms to the bars is mission drift. In the sessions I’ve attended, over and over I hear that the Conservancy needs to bring people, of all races, religion and socio-economic backgrounds into our work. Conservation is not just about biodiversity, it is also about human diversity.”
    Topics: climate change, conservation, energy, population, poverty
    • http://www.blogger.com/profile/18337694112852162181 Geoff Dabelko

      It is terrific to see TNC taking on poverty and population issues in such a sustained way. On population at least, there have been some years when this was not a priority. Just as we saw at the IUCN World Conservation Congress last week in Barcelona, the big conservation organizations are engaging more and more on the necessity to help meet the livelihood needs of the people living in and around biologically sensitive areas. We at the Wilson Center were glad to be involved in the debates of these issues in both Vancouver and Barcelona.

    • http://www.blogger.com/profile/16549342862438864973 Pete Murphy

      Rampant population growth threatens our economy and quality of life. I’m not talking just about the obvious problems that we see in the news – growing dependence on foreign oil, carbon emissions, soaring commodity prices, environmental degradation, etc. I’m talking about the effect upon rising unemployment and poverty.

      I should introduce myself. I am the author of a book titled “Five Short Blasts: A New Economic Theory Exposes The Fatal Flaw in Globalization and Its Consequences for America.” To make a long story short, my theory is that, as population density rises beyond some optimum level, per capita consumption of products begins to decline out of the need to conserve space. People who live in crowded conditions simply don’t have enough space to use and store many products. This declining per capita consumption, in the face of rising productivity (per capita output, which always rises), inevitably yields rising unemployment and poverty.

      If you’re interested in learning more about this important new economic theory, I invite you to visit my web site at OpenWindowPublishingCo.com where you can read the preface for free, join in my blog discussion and, of course, purchase the book if you like. (It’s also available at Amazon.com.)

      Please forgive the somewhat spammish nature of the previous paragraph. I just don’t know how else to inject this new perspective into the population debate without drawing attention to the book that explains the theory.

      Pete Murphy
      Author, “Five Short Blasts”

    • Anonymous

      I left the Sierra Club after talking to the local leaders. They denied that increasing population had any negative effect on the environment. They seemed locked in this absurd position due to political correctness.

    • Anonymous

      The local leaders I am referring to were in Austin Texas. They are so politically correct that they can’t seem to understand that people cause pollution!

      They seemed to be very timid people who were afraid to think outside of their tiny little box. They are in deep denial. By adhering to this absurd notion, aren’t they in effect anti-environmental? The sad part of this is that the Sierra Club sucks up funds that could go to the actual enviromentalists who aren’t afraid to look at what is right in front of them.

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