[The starry background is to remind us that this spaceship Earth has no emergency exit.]

back last   ecostory 34/2012   next E D F home "ecopop" Swiss population control people's initiative "On Friday, 2 November 2012, a Swiss association, Ecopop, deposited 120,000 citizens' signatures at the Swiss Government offices in Bern. [Einleitung Medienkonferenz 02.11.2012.pdf] This Citizens' Initiative asks that - by constitutional law - the population of Switzerland will, as a result of immigration, not grow more than 0.2 per cent per year. Immediately a flood of comments, from all quarters - from green, left-wing socialist, to right-wing capitalists - attacked the iniative. The media, earning their lives by fueling controversies, duly contributed to the confusion by repeating the old and false accusations pronounced by the opponents. Malthus is mentioned, the German Third Reich. Nothing is left out to accuse the initiators of racism and worse, especially some green and socialist party members of parliament. The government and the so-called "business community" reject anything that counters their growth and profit-maximizing policies, which require more and cheaper labour. Yet, the initiative is both too soft and superfluous. For one, the Swiss constitution already stipultes "Sustainable Development" in a number of articles. Since growth can never be sustainable, this outlaws any further growth, since the adoption of the constitution in 1999. Second, the initiative does not want to stop population growth per sé, and neither does it address indigenous growth. Population may growth unrestricted, as long as it's not because of immigration! All those critics do not understand that the country and its resources are finite and they are badly informed about the current horrible overshoot situation - humanity overloading the planet far mopre than nature can sustain. Compare: A extensive list of arguments to maintain the growth paradigmn your feedback... .... Also compare: Technology, Money, Optimism, and Hope The quartet that is killing humankind Doomsday Auction home | sitemap | ecostory | change | motivation | energy | scenarios | feedback E D F ecoglobe for realistic answers 2n11