In this continuing series with Canadian population expert Tim Murray, you cannot help but ‘see’ where citizens of North America find themselves heading. Whether Canadian or American, the ride grows ever more perilous with added population.  Yet, most leaders ‘think’ we can solve water, gas and resource shortages while continuing to add millions of people annually.

 

Please give us an idea of what we face Mr. Murray:

 

“We have been told that India and China must solve their critical water shortages,” said Murray. “We have been told that Africa needs an agricultural revolution.

 

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/jan/24/small-farm-revolution-africa-growth

 

“We have been told that we need genetically modified crops to survive,” said Murray.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/23/gm-foods-world-population-crisis

 

“We have been told by Lester Brown that “we need investment in science and technology, and all the other ways of treating seriously these major problems”,  that is, feeding more people, coping with their demands on water and energy, and doing it all in the next 21 years while mitigating and adapting to climate change. http://www.energybulletin.net/node/53739  

 

“Mr. Brown quoted techno-optimist Amory Lovins’ assertion that “there is no box”, adding that we must think outside of it,” said Murray.  “We have been told these things in response to questions that are based on unchallenged assumptions---- politically correct questions which prompt conventional answers which fall very much ‘inside the box’ that Lester Brown refers to. Questions like:

 

“How will we and shall we feed 9 billion people?”

 

“But the questions that need to be asked are, “Why should we try? And if we succeeded, would not that carry an ecological and human cost of even greater magnitude in the future?” said Murray. “As usual, Garrett Hardin had the answer to all of these questions:

 

 "Every ‘shortage’ of supply is equally a ‘long-age’ of demand".
"We can't cure a shortage by increasing the supply"

 

“All 'humanitarian' efforts at relieving hunger are ultimately inhumane,” said Murray. “All efforts to relieve the pressure of runaway population growth encouraged by inept, corrupt and incompetent governments and criminally pro-natalist religious authorities by fossil fuel-dependent agriculture,  food aid and an open-doors immigration and refugee policy are self-defeating.  Shortages are a vital feedback mechanism. They are alarm bells which should tell us to pull back from the brink, not try to continue to cheat limits by generating what William Catton called "phantom carrying capacity". Trying to out-run the demands of a growing population by the use of fertilizers, irrigation, pesticides and biotechnological fixes only promotes more growth, leading humanity further out on a limb, and inviting a catastrophe of even greater scale down the road.”

 

Tim Murray, www.immigrationwatchCanada.org , http://sinkinglifeboat.blogspot.com or http://biodiversityfirst.googlepages.com,  said, “I came upon an orchestration, the environmental movement, and all the musicians were playing violins to the tune of “Overconsumption, overconsumption, overconsumption.” They refused to play any other tune or use any other instrument to compliment that narrow repertoire. Apparently some corporate donors were paying them to be a one-trick pony.