Dick Smith: $1 m for population solution
By:Julian Swallow
| August-12-2010
Dick Smith is so concerned about Australia's growing population he's giving away $1 million for the best idea on how to tackle it.
Dick Smith offer $1 million for the best idea on solving a sustainable population. (Photo: AFP/Greg Wood)
DICK SMITH, PHILANTHROPIST AND Australian Geographic founder, has put the issue of population into the public eye in a big way. With a Richard Branson-style press conference, Dick - surrounded by a mob of blonde women - announced the prize of $1 million to a person under 30 who has the best idea on how to solve the population puzzle.
"It all comes back to why," Dick says. "Of course, to wealthy people, population growth will generally increase their prosperity and wealth...But what about the average wage and salary earner and retiree? Possibly over 80 per cent of our population?"
Dick is challenging the perception promoted by many politicians and businesspeople that a growing population is key to Australia's ongoing prosperity and security.
Along with the cash prize, Dick has also produced a documentary, Dick Smith's Population Puzzle, in which he explores how rapid population growth is changing Australia and the world, and how it's contributing to growing environmental problems such as climate change and environmental degradation.
Overcrowded planet
Global population is predicted to exceed nine billion by 2050, and Australia is expected to be a major contributor. Since 1986, Australia's population has jumped by 6.2 million to 22.3 million, and Washington DC-based private research body, the Population Reference Bureau, has predicted Australia's population will increase by 65 per cent over the next four decades, making it the world's fast growing industrialised nation.
While Dick acknowledges growth has economic benefits, he points out that limited agricultural and water resources, which results in the federal government spending hundreds of millions of dollars each year buying water rights to ensure an adequate flow in the country's main Murray-Darling river system, will make it difficult to sustain our quality of life.
"With 22 million, we have the potential to share in the wealth of this country. Increase the population to 44 million, and each person has the potential to share in half as much," says Dick. "Last year we grew our population by almost 500,000, the equivalent of the entire state of Tasmania. What's in it for most Australians? I believe the answer is less and less."
Dick's populaltion prize website: http://dicksmithpopulation.com/wilberforce-award/
Dick Smith's Population Puzzle screens ABC One. See a video preview below.