Immigration/Justice Juxtoposition

NEARLY three-quarters of Australians do not want a bigger population, a recent survey shows.


The result appears to back up the decision by the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, to switch from Kevin Rudd's ''Big Australia'' argument to her own ''sustainable Australia'' rhetoric.


(Snip)


Professor Betts said the survey was conducted late last year, not long after the Treasury released its prediction of a 36 million population by 2050, a prospect the then prime minister, Mr Rudd, welcomed. He said at the time:



''I make no apology for that. I actually think it is a good thing that our population is growing.''


But Ms Gillard abandoned her predecessor's policy shortly after she took over and renamed the Population portfolio held by Tony Burke ''Sustainable Population''.


http://www.smh.com.au/national/big-...-down-like-a-lead-balloon-20100803-115g7.html

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It's little wonder. Bolivia is in the midst of a dramatic political transformation, one that has nationalized key industries and elevated the voices of indigenous peoples as never before. But when it comes to Bolivia's most pressing, existential crisis—the fact that its glaciers are melting at an alarming rate, threatening the water supply in two major cities—Bolivians are powerless to do anything to change their fate on their own.

That's because the actions causing the melting are taking place not in Bolivia but on the highways and in the industrial zones of heavily industrialized countries. In Copenhagen, leaders of endangered nations like Bolivia and Tuvalu argued passionately for the kind of deep emissions cuts that could avert catastrophe. They were politely told that the political will in the North just wasn't there. More than that, the United States made clear that it didn't need small countries like Bolivia to be part of a climate solution. It would negotiate a deal with other heavy emitters behind closed doors, and the rest of the world would be informed of the results and invited to sign on, which is precisely what happened with the Copenhagen Accord. When Bolivia and Ecuador refused to rubber-stamp the accord, the US government cut their climate aid by $3 million and $2.5 million, respectively. "It's not a free-rider process," explained US climate negotiator Jonathan Pershing. (Anyone wondering why activists from the global South reject the idea of "climate aid" and are instead demanding repayment of "climate debts" has their answer here.) Pershing's message was chilling: if you are poor, you don't have the right to prioritize your own survival.


Naomi Klein, the Nation

And from her blog:

With melting glaciers dramatically threatening its water supply, it is no surprise that Bolivia is emerging as a leader of the global South in the fight against climate change. And its climate negotiators have become eloquent advocates for a new, big idea that is reinvigorating the climate justice movement: "climate debt."

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