Population Institute of Canada

The Paradox: Canadians prize the image of Canada as a vast empty land ripe for massive human settlement. Since 1900, the population of Canada has increased six fold, while the global population has quadrupled. Most of the people live within one hundred miles of the American border and the majority of those in a few large cities which are becoming more congested and dirty. Recent insights from the science of ecology suggest that Canadians greatly overestimate carrying capacity, the amount of human life that Canada can support sustainably over the long-term. Much of the land is barren and incapable of supporting a large population.

The Interest: Many view Canada as a great business opportunity and a desirable destination, an empty place with ample natural resources just waiting to be consumed. This is short-term thinking. This assessment is wrong ecologically and ethically. Many of these resources are not renewable and can be depleted rapidly by voracious global demand.

The Transition: Canadians and all the people of the world are beginning to understand the implications of ecology. Human life depends on a web of many interdependent species. The web is based on countless micro-organisms in the soil and water and on plants that, through photosynthesis, directly or indirectly feed all other levels of the food chain. Current human practices and beliefs are on a collision course with the life support system on Earth. In many cultures, including the globally predominant consumer culture, there is a bias that recognizes ethics only in terms of human relationships but not in terms of the human impact on other forms of life, regardless of the fact that they make human life possible. We humans must develop a new sense of ethics that involves confronting our instinctive expansionist drives and our disregard for non-human forms of life. If Canada decided to stabilize its human population, it would do much to advance sound ecological practices worldwide.