GEOG20003 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Ecological Footprint, Global Citizenship, Biocapacity
16 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
LECTURE 9A: POPULATION + THE ENVIRONMENT
• Population – becoming a pressure on the environment as growth in cities
• Public policy: affects size of population through fertility + immigration
• Is there such thing as an optimal social, economic or environmental population – should we have pop + pop growth
targets?
AUSTRALIAN POPULATION
• 36 million by 2050, sharp + steep growth, double by 2100 (will get bigger under current immigration policy, growth due to
Net Overseas Migration)
• Increase in Aus growth rate due to migration (60% of growth due to migrants)
• Since 1960’s: fertility rate fallen + plateaued, steady since WWII
• Since 1990’s: 2006-2009 highest growth
• Constant fertility rate since 1986, therefore immigration accounts for growth
• Melbourne: fastest growing city
• Migration rates: reflects economy + unemployment rate
o Trend between low NOM + high unemployment rate
o Fluctuations in unemployment are periodic and short lasting, whereas migration is long
lasting
• Extremely high pop growth rate compared to OECD countries
• Pop = meta-pressure on the environment
o Driver for more food production, resource use + land cleaning
o Env issues: water, land + food, waste, pollution, fuel, resources, biodiversity + quality of life
ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT
• Metaphor for env impact: relates impact to land area
• Incorporates: food, shelter, mobility – embodied inputs
• Doesn’t account for: biodiversity, waste, pollution
• Global demand is exceeding supply, growth since 1960’s – overshot limits already
o Limits to Growth: using more than be renewed = unsustainable future
• Aus: 4.2 Earths, Vic: 4.53 Earths – far higher than global average
• Biocapacity: given biologically productive area to generate ongoing supply of renewable resources + to absorb spill over
wastes
o Need more of the global as creditors to be sustainable
o No account for global trade of g+s
o But: tech can cause more problems + the issue is global in scale (must account for trades)
• Local Env Carrying Capacity: need more complex understanding of scarcity + abundance
Population Fix as Ideology
• Pop control is based on relations of domination + subordination – involves social, political + economic repression exercised
by elites
• Theories which focus on pop as problem + tech solutions are ideological
• Earth’s carrying capacity is a social construction + scarcity is relative (and constantly transformed through human-
environment relations)
Environmental Problem
• Migration results in net increase in ecological footprint – increased consumption
• Equity consideration – pop limits based on eco footprints – can we exclude people due to env costs, to have Aus
standard of living?
• Can we expand industries for economic growth to increase resource efficiency to compensate extra output?
ACTORS
• Key: address unemployment fluctuations in the business cycle
• Pro-pop growth + pro-immigration (Business Council of Aus, major political parties, ethnic lobbies)
• Anti: conservatives, divergence in NGO positions
• Environmentalists
• Unions – lower wages, take Aus jobs
INSTITUTIONS
• Cultural + ethical
o Loyalties
o Economic – selection process
o Rights – refugees
• Political
o Voting system – reflects conflicting concerns, can bias against consideration of long-term
o Sovereignty
o Global citizenship
LECTURE 9B: CITIES
I = P.A.T
Erlich: env impact is a
function of pop, affluence
+ technology
Ecological Footprint:
environmental impact per
person, amount of land
required to meet
demands
Document Summary
Population becoming a pressure on the environment as growth in cities. Public policy: affects size of population through fertility + immigration. 36 million by 2050, sharp + steep growth, double by 2100 (will get bigger under current immigration policy, growth due to. Increase in aus growth rate due to migration (60% of growth due to migrants) Since 1960"s: fertility rate fallen + plateaued, steady since wwii. Since 1990"s: 2006-2009 highest growth: constant fertility rate since 1986, therefore immigration accounts for growth, melbourne: fastest growing city, migration rates: reflects economy + unemployment rate. Trend between low nom + high unemployment rate. Fluctuations in unemployment are periodic and short lasting, whereas migration is long lasting. Extremely high pop growth rate compared to oecd countries. Pop = meta-pressure on the environment: driver for more food production, resource use + land cleaning. Env issues: water, land + food, waste, pollution, fuel, resources, biodiversity + quality of life.
