Your views: on SA population growth and more
Today, readers comment on city size and lifestyle and a proposed new pub.
Commenting on the story: SA population shrinks as ‘brain drain’ resumes
We bought a house and moved to Queensland last year. Way more future opportunities for our 12-year-old.
Born and bred in SA and little has changed in the 33 years I was there. Jobs outside health or defence slim. Why stay? – Mel Sowden
This is some of the best news I’ve read in many years. Long may it continue.
The rampant increase in population over several decades has caused urban sprawl into good farm fields, and most recently, high-rise cramming. Travel times have risen exponentially.
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Asking a commercial migration agent whether population increase is a good idea is like asking Lendlease whether we need a slew of major building projects. As with all pyramid schemes, the model isn’t appropriate where resources are finite.
This article does nothing to justify the throw-away “brain drain” comment. Yes, some people have left, but who is to say what the average “brain” level was? – Brian Vogt
I see no inherent problem with having a stable population, despite what the usual vested interests (e.g. developers, media) politicians and many (but not all) economists have to say on the topic.
As opposed to the acknowledged very crude metric of total GDP ($), many of us are more interested in GDP/capita and quality of life. This includes additional aspects not measured in GDP in economic terms but which surely are important to our total wellbeing, both physical and psychological.
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Increased population has negative impacts on so many critical areas including; the state of the environment and wildlife (e.g. habitat reduction), our natural resource base and ability to grow food (e.g. water security, urban encroachment), urban pollution and traffic congestion. And then there’s carbon emissions and global warming – we are not even close to reducing per capita emissions let alone those from an ever expanding population.
So to those who believe in population Ponzi schemes, ask yourselves just at what point do we have more people than we can sustainably support and what does the world look like at this point? Is it one that your grandchildren will thank you for or have you sold them out? – Jake Howie
Why does InDaily and other media always cast the slightest blip in endless population growth as a matter of serious concern? Why are the ‘experts’ quoted always from pro-growth lobbies?
Why are we unable to see the high quality of life in smaller countries with low, zero or even negative population growth? When are we going to join the dots, and understand that we are part of a global community living through an unprecedented human population explosion that has destabilised the climate and is forcing a mass extinction of other species?
We don’t need to increase our numbers in order to thrive. That is a phoney neoliberal construct to push up GDP, itself a lousy measure of our well being. Sustainability demands that we stabilise our population, as well as trim our personal consumption. We can achieve that in a gradual, just and painless manner by ending the federal government’s huge program of importing hundreds of thousands of new consumers each year to prop up GDP growth. – Peter Martin
Commenting on the story: Five-storey hotel plan for Goodwood Rd
So, two significant trees will remain on the property. How many others will be removed? Adding two trees for every one removed and planting them at the owners’ private Hills property won’t help the local bird and wildlife. – Elaine Attwood
