James Heartfield at Waterstones

James Heartfield Jim at heartfield.demon.co.uk
Mon Jan 13 13:52:52 PST 2003


From: Kevin Robert Dean <qualiall at union.org.za> writes:

"While I personaly tend to believe that those who are those "ZPG" folks are ones who tend to think that "Overpopulation" is when people who are not the right color have children, for balance, I'll put this counterpoint from recent Sanford research on this matter:"

I agree. All arguments from scarcity tend towards rationing - usually on the basis of some pre-existing moral distinction between the deserving and undeserving: hence the small distance between ecology and racism.

Kevin cites the article

"Smaller households fuel global housing boom and threaten biodiversity, study finds"

http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2003/january15/households-115.html

The basis of this article is the prejudice that the trend towards people living individually rather than in family units is putting pressure on space and resources.

I shan't re-tread the resources question here, but the space/sprawl question is just nonsensical.

In the UK towns over 10 000 occupy less than ten per cent of the country. Roads occupy 0.2 per cent of all land. Fully three-quarters is farm land, about a third of which is surplus to requirements. There just is no absolute pressure on land from homes in the UK. -- James Heartfield

http://www.heartfield.demon.co.uk/james1.htm



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