Allowing 300 migrants in for the next 30 years harmful

I listened to some of the debate, thinking that some of the speeches lasting 10 to 20 minutes could be finished in that many seconds. What appalled me was when one deputy thought there was a problem with local families having fewer children with the result that the population would go down. Guernsey has one of the highest human densities on the planet. A recent upsize in our population has seen us have the dubious honour of jumping above Jersey to 12th most dense country on the planet. The number has increased to over 1000 per square kilometre. The UK has 277 (England by itself has 407). Affluent USA, rightly blamed for damage to the environment, has only 35. We have half their affluence, but because we are about 30 times as dense does that make us more damaging than them? When our low lying lands get flooded, our density figure will be higher still, with us rising to about 8th.

I have tried to give a name to persons who do not imagine that overpopulation has a negative effect on the planet. Having gone through many swear and derogatory words, I have decided to use the polite word naive. Listing some negative overpopulation effects – resource depletion, water shortages, climate change, loss of biodiversity, soil depletion, overcrowding, lack of space for various uses, poverty and particularly at this time for us, lack of housing for our youngsters.

At my age, I will not see the worst of things to come, but I think, what if I am reborn many years later. I can imagine my parents taking me for a ride around the island, with the northern coast road going through the L’Aumone and King’s Mills areas. We might travel to Torteval to see the last remaining field left in Guernsey before the planned development of 15 flats is built on it. We might travel across the Bridge causeway to the Clos du Valle island. Perhaps my mum will have difficulty buying food, as there is a worldwide shortage with the more major countries getting the first pick. Looking back at 1944/5 and the difficulty of feeding about 35,000 people, (both local and German) at a time when there was much more arable land available. We will have difficulty migrating to England because they have their own problems with large slices of land being beneath water (including parts of London). There might be people selling inflatable boats in order to travel to France where the country is less dense on the nearside coast, with the French coastguard trying to stop us.

For those still naive enough to believe that more people do not put more CO2 into the atmosphere, compare if 50 thousand people lived here against 100 thousand. Stopping increases in our population is going to be hard, but imagine Winston Churchill letting Hitler in so that we could have an easier life. The first thing we can do is stop inviting new finance firms for a number of years, and scrapping the department that seeks such new businesses and individuals. It is pointless to invite such firms in if the result is that they will be filling homes etc which otherwise could be lived in by locals. It would be different if, as has happened before, office blocks are being left empty. Certain jobs can be filled by the elderly. At 80, I would still be suitable for some jobs, although I can imagine a builder’s foreman yelling at me to get a move on. Likewise, youngsters can get apprenticeships for worthwhile jobs.

Looking at 2050 and zero carbon, what also must be taken into account is the amount of material imported into the island which produces carbon elsewhere. This amounts today to nearly 400 kilotonnes per year. The proposed offshore wind farms should be helpful, but to think that we will ever get to net zero is living in a fool’s paradise.

Mr D Wylie

La Chanterelle

Ruette des Fries

Castel

GY5 7PW