An article originally published in the University of Wollongong Student magazine, Tertangala vol 1 2000 by John Finlayson.

(Website Editor's note: This article has been reproduced because it offers a brief but succinct reexamination of the perspective which states that overpopulation in itself is a central problem of the 'third world'. The Website issues a disclaimer here as it has no comment in regards to Carr's personal needs or motivations in regards to industry damaging the environment, and any statement by the author to this effect is not necessarily representative of the opinions held by this website or its' hosts. I simply have not researched this and so do not have any say on the matter. Readers are advised to make their own conclusions and perhaps further research the matter if they feel the inclination.One place to start is by reading the occult technology of power and its reference to 'pubpols'.)
 
 

An article entitled The Doomsday Millennium appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on the 6th of January this year. Bob Carr, the Premier of NSW, wrote this article about the causes of starvation and environmental destruction around the world. Carr predicted what the world would be like in 100 years time if we did not change the way we live. While this sounds like there is a politician who actually cares about environmental issues, the article blames overpopulation for environmental damage, and Carr uses ridiculous arguments to support his claim.

Overbobulation

Carr tries to blame overpopulation for rainforests being bulldozed, for CFCs destroying the ozone layer, and for acid rain. However, these things are not due to population growth, but to another ‘P word - Profit. The quest for profit is the biggest cause of environmental damage known. Carr says that in 100 years time, a lot more people will live in smog covered cities, with acid rain falling from the sky (he believes this is how people in North East Asia live now). This is apparently unavoidable, because the world is overpopulated. Instead, I would argue, it is the way in which corporations are given a free rein to make profits by any means possible –that is, by exploiting the environment and assuming that the way humans live now is the only way possible—and the continuation of this in the future, that cause the environmental destruction that Carr speaks of.

Economics

Carr says that some people believe that economics will solve our problems. That somehow everyone will magically get richer, and that this will solve the environmental problems we face. But he says that this will not work because the GDPs are falling in many African countries (for example) because of over population. However, these falling GDPs are due to the exploitation of ‘Third World’ countries by huge multinational companies. These multinationals use the natural resources of these countries and treat the citizens as slaves. An example of such exloitation is Royal dutch Shell in Nigeria, who use the oil in the land of the Ogoni people in the delta region of the Niger river. It wasn’t overpopulation that made Shell steal the oil from the people by paying off government ministers, or leave oil wherever it was spilt. It was GREED, the same greed that runs the world under our capitalist system. Other guilty companies include Nike in Indonesia who pay workers $1 a day, if they’re lucky, and BHP in Bougainville, which has suffered massive pollution that BHP doesn’t want to clean up or pay adequate compensation for.

Brazil (A film by Bob Carr)

 Carr uses Brazil as an example of the devastation caused by overpopulation, claiming it has caused the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest. The real cause of this destruction however, is companies such as ‘100% Australian Beef’ who cut down the forest to provide grazing land and grow crops for cattle, in order to provide beef for McDonalds. To produce 1kg of beef, between 12kg and 16kg of grain and crops is required. Therefore, if people had a plant-based diet instead of living on a flesh-based diet, there would be a lot more rainforest, and a lot more food. There is, in fact, enough food in the world at the moment to feed the global population. But corporations refuse to put it all on the market, as this will lower prices, and decrease profit. In the same way, there is a wool stockpile in Australia that can’t be sold for fear of bringing down market prices for wool.

Carr says that despite India having one of the world’s best performing economies according to the World Bank (meaning that the bosses are making huge profits), there are lots of poor, starving people, and there is a high infant mortality rate. However, this is not due to overpopulation as Carr claims, but is because the IMF and other instruments of global capital impose privatisation and service cutbacks as preconditions to getting a ‘bailout package'. This ensures that the lives of poor people do not improve, as all the profits go to multinational companies.

Absolute Bullshit

In addition, Carr blames overpopulation for illiteracy and poor health in developing nations, instead of blaming the IMF and the World Bank, who force countries to limit spending to apply for loans. Thus health care and education are cut drastically in order to qualify for loans. Australia is also privatising health and education, and this isn’t due to overpopulation, it is because these services cut into profit.

Carr says, ‘an American inflicts 70 times as much environmental damage as a Laotian’. But this environmental damage is caused by the huge multi national corporations in the USA that do not have to follow environmental guidelines. It is not due to the average American citizen. Carr also says, ‘Population growth, of course, is the factor that drives, or multiplies, or accelerates global warming’. This is absolute BULLSHIT. It is not poor people in Third World countries that cause global warming. It is the greedy corporations who do not give a fuck about the environment, and who keep pumping out green house gases, who are to blame for the greenhouse effect -because caring for the environment is just too expensive.

Overpopulation is not the cause of unemployment either. If there was full employment (ie. no unemployment), workers would haveto be paid more, as there wouldn't be a pool of unemployed people who were willing to work for a shit wage because its ‘better than the dole’. The whole capitalist system benefits from unemployment, and from nationalism, which Bob helps to feed through his article. People are taught to think of themselves as an ‘Australian’ rather than as a human, and this leads to blame being placed on people from other countries and on overpopulation for our environmental woes. This in turn leads to the rise of racism - the argument being that there is already too many people in Australia, so restrictionson immigration are needed to prevent migrants stealing ‘our’ jobs and polluting our shores.

Carr says that he loves Australia so much because ‘nature still lives over much of it’. This is probably because there is so much more for him to destroy; more forests that he can woodchip, more clean oceans he can pump sewerage into, and more clean air he can allow to be polluted. Bob says that our natural treasures will be erased within the next 100 years. However, with the way he is going about it, he can probably destroy it in the next 20 years.

For Bob Carr to call himself an environmentalist, and blame environmental problems on overpopulation is just rubbish. It wasn't overpopulation that caused Carr to change the law that allowed the opening of the Port Kembla copper smelter. This smelter is pumping carcinogens and poisonous chemicals into the atmosphere (including cadmium, benzene, sulphur dioxide, mercury, lead and arsenic). The reason that Carr opened the copper smelter was to make NSW look attractive to business, by allowing profits at any cost -including the lives of the people that make up the cancer cluster in Port Kembla.

So why did Bob write his article? To offer people a scapegoat so they don’t see the real causes of environmental destruction, poverty and sickness. To score points with big business, by making NSW exploitation-friendly. And to score political points by appearing to be concerned.

John Finlayson.