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Uranium, capitalism & populationsJohn Ford (John.Ford@JCU.EDU.AU)Thu, 6 Oct 1994 10:14:59 +1000
"Curiously, even though many decry (and rightly so) capitalist systems for their destructive effects on material resources, less often notices is that it is those same societies where growth rates have dropped to zero or even below zero--the preconditions for a stabilized relationship between people and resources". At the wrap-up at the ALP Conference in Hobart, the issue of the "three mines" policy was retained. So, for the immediate future Australia will not be mining any more uranium. The 'fallout' of this decision by LAbor party is that Aborigines will be restricted access to economic growth through uranium mining. Dwight' s assumption that capitalism has to do with falling birth rates may have greater relevance inb the future with how many nuclear submarines and reactors that have been dumped (dropped) into the sea all ticking away awaiting some future time to corrode and relaese their load onto, and into, the world. Perhaps the reason for any correlation between cap. and a falling pop, growth is that in advanced capitalist society 'we' can 'afford' not to produce people. In other words, the fact that some 20 per cent of the world use over 80 per cent of its resourcses (The statisticians may correst my rough estimates) may say something about po. growth. Perhaps the better correlation is between use of resorces and population decreasing. - increase resourse use and you can expect a fall in the pop. growth. Is there some anthropologist looking at the economic rationalist discourse and how it 'drives' the perceived need for continual producing and progress? John Ford
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