Articles by John Feeney
John Feeney's writing has appeared in Atlantic Free Press, the BBC News's Green Room, Countercurrents.org, Culture Change, Dissident Voice, Energy Bulletin, Online Journal, PeopleAndPlanet.net, Share The World's Resources, SHIFT Mag, The Arabesques Review, The Guardian, The Intelligence Daily, The Oil Drum, The Smirking Chimp, and other publications.
He received a 2007 ECO Award from the Earth Community Organization for the essay, Six steps to "getting" the global ecological crisis.
Here are some links:
Return of the population timebomb
It's a myth that we can solve the global ecological crisis by reducing per capita consumption while ignoring population. Ecological footprint data provide one way of proving that. We must return our attention to population. There is no alternative.
As a pair, this article and Six steps to "getting" the global ecological crisis, demonstrate that we are in overshoot and that reducing per capita consumption without addressing population won't get us out.
(Note: (1) The calculations in this article are all correct. They are based on the most precise data provided by the Global Footprint Network (GFN), not the rounded figures used in some of the summaries on their site or, in some instances, in this article. (2) This article was written using GFN's 2006 data. They have since published their 2008 data which show the situation being considerably worse.)
Return of the population timebomb
Humanity is the greatest challenge
Though it is the most important challenge humanity has ever faced, the media underplay the global ecological crisis. Overpopulation is its central driver. Yet environmentalists avoid the subject more than any other ecological truth.
Humanity is the greatest challenge
Population and the ecological crisis
The low fertility rates in some European countries may be the best news in the world today. Can the EU show the world the path to sustainability?
Population and the ecological crisis
Six steps to "getting" the global ecological crisis
Using standard definitions and simple logic, it's easy enough to prove irrefutably that our numbers have exceeded the earth's carrying capacity for humans.
Six steps to "getting" the global ecological crisis (Revised here)
Can ecological economists stop the mainstreamers before it's too late?
Mainstream economists are trying to kill us. They don't think of it that way, but they should. The standard policies promoting endless economic growth of the conventional sort are destroying the ecosystem.
Can ecological economists stop the mainstreamers before it's too late?
(Originally published at Culture Change.)
When environmental writers are part of the problem
It's common among environmental writers today to avoid the topic of human population size and growth. What are they thinking?
When environmental writers are part of the problem
Earth needs renewed attention to human population growth
Since the 1970s, the subject of population has faded from prominence. This needs to change as our total resource consumption is the product of population size and the average per capita consumption.
Earth needs renewed attention to human population growth
Find additional articles on John's now inactive blog, Growth is Madness! It's a useful resource for analyses of certain ecological questions with emphases on population and ecological economics. A number of the articles debunk common myths such as: (1) the notion that becaucause all humans could fit in Texas that means we are not overpopulated, (2) the assumption that the UN's population projections can be taken as reliable predictions, and (3) the argument that the problem is not population but per capita consumption. (It's both!) For these topics and much more, do try Growth is Madness!
