Various articles on the BBC news website point to the battle between advocates of sustainability and the growth chanters who just want to make money in the short term regardless of long term consequences.
With the population of the UK racing towards 70 million there are those who sensibly question the need for yet more mouths to feed in a country which is now a net importer of food.
The government wants to curtail planning laws so that people can build anything to create a few jobs and use up resources. I've seen that before, in Ireland, with thousands of empty estates tacked onto villages, towns and cities. Now they are surrounded by barbed wire to keep the locals from doing up their own houses with whatever they can rip out.
The infinite growth advocates will say things like, "We need more people to look after a growing population of retired people." However, these people refuse to answer what happens to these carers when they are old and need looking after. Many millions more to repeat the cycle?
Millions more people need houses, food and infrastructure. More hospitals, schools, roads and rails for a country that has to print money just to pay for what it already has.
People will point at Japan and say, "There is an island, more densely populated than the UK, with the majority of people living on the coast." Well, we see where putting all yours eggs in the coast basket does when a tsunami hits.
Although the UK is unlikely to be hit by a tsunami (although historic records says that it has), the fact is the UK is not an homogenous and rigid society like Japan. Citizens of the UK could never live like Japanese people do. We are at each others throats as it is, millions more will exacerbate our social problems.
With over two million unemployed people, dwindling oil reserves, an obvious peak of economic growth with a world economy now approaching its 5th year of stagnation, isn't obvious that we need fewer people in the world?
A growing population needs food, housing and jobs. How can a planet of finite size and resource provide for an ever increasing population?
We explore the solar system with robots, Concorde and the Space Shuttle are now museum pieces, we spy on our enemies with unmanned aircraft. We are retreating from manned exploration. We have reached our limit. There are no aliens in spacecraft to show us that our future is in the rest of the galaxy. Earth is our lifeboat and we better start looking after it.
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