There is a fascinating letter in the Canberra Times today that I thought should be reproduced here for the benefit of the masses and not just the paltry few who read the Crimes (heh heh).
The letter is quite lengthy so I have edited for length:
- ” …The ACT Greens now want to spend $8 million on better plumbing to use less water. Clearly they do not understand what economists call the Jevons Paradox. William Lines and I in our book ‘Overloading Australia’ due out next month explore this paradox. We conclude that better plumbing and personal restraint will only let governments push the ACT’s population ever higher, leading to worse disaster at the next drought. Until government stops advertising for more citizens to ‘fill’ the ACT, concerned citizens should not only not conserve but should deliberately ‘waste’ water…
… As we summarise it, “falling levels in the dams will come either way; whether by people refusing to conserve water or by governments cramming ever more people into each city and region. The difference is that the first way creates an effective form of civil disobedience, while the second merely leaves us in the situation of the boiling frog. In the short term your garden will thank you for it; in the long term all Australia may.” Mark O’Connor Lyneham.
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