I have always felt the one of a fundamental aspects of taking part in public debates has been to judge each issue on its merits. In this way, as a public commentator drawing on a long tradition of theoretical and intellectual tradition, I try not to be captured by any single ideology.
In this way, I see myself as an environmentalist, but refuse to accept the simple equation that population growth is the problem because it targets poor nations and creates a lifeboat mentality. Likewise, I have strong socialist leanings and believe in the communist ideals of solidarity, but also see a place for the free market in efficient distribution of certain resources. I have also been involved with social movements, and written in support of these (including Occupy and GetUp), but also see their limitations and problems.
Each time I write something like that, I am flooded with tweets, facebook and blog comments as well as emails in both support and criticism (and sometimes abuse). I have been called everything from a communist and socialist, extremist, neoliberal, naive, conservative, radical, a sell-out and so on.
Many of the people who write the abuse or dismiss what I have written rarely engage with the arguments, they simply throw labels they seem not to understand at me (read up on neliberalism and communism people). I sometimes feel that they have not even properly read the article.
Nothing has surprise me more, however, than the reaction to the article I wrote for New Matilda about the the rape allegations regarding Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks.
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One of the fundamental environmental challenges that we are confronting is the growing population of this world. In 2011, the world population reached 7 billion people and it is predicted to grow in current trends by another 2 billion in 2050.
