is less than the current population with our current lifestyle. Fortunately most people don't like this lifestyle a whole lot. My guess is that consumerism is the symptom and will disappear when people can have secure housing and more time doing meaningful work and spending time with those they love. Needless to say these changes aren't envisioned by our current major party politicians - who are STILL captive to the economic fundamentalist ideology. (Despite a recent global recession - I'm sure they must have read about, it was in all the papers). Phil : 23 Dec 2010 7:35:49pm "I'm not sure what population Australia could support." Professor Tim Flannery, Australian of the Year 2007, calculated a long-term carrying capacity of between 8 million and 12 million. We had that population in 1950 and 1968 respectively (ABS 3105.0.56.001), not so long ago. The population is now over 22.5 million and increasing rapidly. In 1994, Australian Academy of Sciences held the Symposium, "Population 2040: Australia's choice". The joint statement said: "the quality of all aspects of our children's lives will be maximised if the population of Australia by the mid-21st Century is kept to the low, stable end of the achievable range, i.e. to approximately 23 million." http://www.science.org.au/events/sats/sa\\... [Joint Statement] I believe the term "achievable range" used above is the population trajectory controlled by government policy. Obviously, its bad that the population trajectory has most likely exceed the long-term carrying capacity already. The stable Population Party of Australia is advocating a stable