Newsletter No. 61, May 2025
More growth means less happiness, fewer birds and more pollution
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Do we really need more growth?
8 billion and rising.
Numbers matter for a sustainable future
Net growth during your visit to this site:
Every child a wanted child. Every mother a willing mother. Promote reproductive health and rights for all.
Latest News
Our Videos
The Century Initiative was created as a vehicle to push Canada’s population to 100 million by 2100.
Other Population-related Videos
Population Institute Canada patron Dr. Bill Rees on humanity’s overshoot predicament.
Why population growth is an issue in Canada
Who among us has not heard that Canada is underpopulated: a huge country with “vast open spaces” and a small population? It is time to lay that myth to rest.
Sprawl
While advocates of perpetual growth like to pretend that sprawl can be avoided with “smart growth” and densification, in fact no growing city has ever avoided sprawl, even as it densified and sprouted ever more high-rises.
Agricultural lands
Only about 7% of Canada’s land area is suitable for any kind of agriculture, including pastureland. And only about 0.5% is classified as “class 1” with no significant limitations to farming.
Water
Canada is blessed with 6.5% of the world’s renewable water supply, but only about 40% of that amount (or 2.6% of the world’s supply) is available in the south where most of the population lives.
Biodiversity & habitat loss
Sadly, negative environmental trends in Canada replicate those in most other parts of the world, with flora and fauna disappearing as human habitation and land use expands.
Energy
Given its northern location, Canada is one of the highest per capita energy users in the world. In 2017, Canadians used 7534 kg of oil equivalents per person per year (vs. 7051 in USA; 1695 in China; 263 in Haiti).
Social services
As Canada’s population has grown, so have the stresses on its infrastructure, housing costs, social services, and society in general. In addition to greater density, there is more traffic, more noise, more construction, less greenspace, and longer commutes.
Population growth makes demands on the natural world that are overwhelming our efforts to protect the biosphere and to achieve a sustainable future for generations to come.
Our Honorary Patrons
Population Institute Canada is honoured to have a number of distinguished honorary patrons who have lent their names to support our cause of striving for a sustainable human population.
