Response 2

'Greed is good.' Although few people today would openly agree with this sentiment, the equally damaging idea that 'growth is good' remains. Citizens of the developing world celebrate when the economy is growing and champion a rising national birth rate, which means a growing population of new consumers. However the James Ward Sustainability lecture underlines the fact that there must be a fundamental shift in attitude in terms of the way that population growth is viewed. The world's population growth is exploding and soon the world will not be able to sustain the needs of a rapidly-expanding population.

Ward stresses that despite the current 'fad' for sustainable and green technology, this small changes are not nearly enough to cope with the population boom. The effects of the use of so-called alternative transport fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel, and even the shift to electric technology will be too small to reduce the transportation and nutrition demands of the coming generations, if population growth continues unabated (Ward, Sustainability, Slide 21). To follow...

But while his warning against greenwashing is important, it is equally vital to reflect on the democratic costs of some of his suggestions, like limiting the number of children a family can have -- and the economic costs of shrinking consumption and growth, which may mean fewer jobs for…