Until about a year ago, I had never thought about the population issue.  It simply wasn’t in my realm of thinking.  However, one thing which gives me a little bit of solace is that most of my friends were the same.

In September 2009, my youngest daughter, Jenny, phoned me and said, “dad, they are all talking about human induced climate change, and they’re all going off to Copenhagen.  Why don’t they talk about the ‘elephant in the room’”.  I said, “Jenny, what’s that?”.  She said, “population!”.

The instant she said the word, it was almost as if a light was turned on in my head.  Within seconds I realised how stupid I had been.  Here we were talking about problems which are facing our planet, but people weren’t talking about the most obvious problem – too many people.  I knew that we had something like 6.7 billion people in the world, and this was predicted to go to over 9 billion by 2050.  But I’d never actually linked that with a great many of the problems we have in our world. continue reading

Here are just some of the lies that the Murdoch press has written about me in the last two months:

“Dick Smith calls for two children limit for families”

“’Every Australian family should be limited to just two children’, Dick Smith said yesterday”

“He called for a China-like quota on the number of kids, warning the growing burden on our resources was like a plague of locusts”

“Mr Smith is fiercely opposed to immigration”

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The Murdoch press are absolutely paranoid about anyone mentioning that we can’t have constant growth in the use of material resources and energy. 

Linked HERE is an article written by Michael Stutchbury, Economics Editor of The Australian following the launch of the Wilberforce Award and the screening of the Dick Smith’s Population Puzzle documentary on 12 August.

I have therefore decided on a special $5,000 prize for the first young person under the age of thirty who can get definitive coverage of the Wilberforce Award in the Murdoch press, including the fact that you can’t have constant growth of the use of resources and energy in a finite world.

So go for it!  It must be possible.  One day there will be a journalist working for Murdoch who understands the truth and believes responsible journalism means that both sides of an argument should be fairly shown.

Remember, this is not an emotive view – it’s a simple fact.  We can’t always have growth in the use of material resources and energy in a finite world.

Plus, I will give an EXTRA AUD5,000 to the first person who can get a proper mention of the Wilberforce Award in the print versions of either New Scientist Magazine or The Economist. Both of these magazines seem to have an insatiable desire for promoting growth. Then again, no doubt they are owned by capitalists who want their business to grow every year!  So – I’ll say it again – to the first person who can get a story which covers the basic points about the Wilberforce Award in a print version of one of these magazines I will be happy to send a cheque for AUD5,000.