Until about two years ago, I had never thought about the population issue. It simply wasn’t in my realm of thinking. However, one thing which gives me a little bit of solace is that most of my friends were the same.

In September 2009, my youngest daughter, Jenny, phoned me and said, “dad, they are all talking about human induced climate change, and they’re all going off to Copenhagen. Why don’t they talk about the ‘elephant in the room’”. I said, “Jenny, what’s that?”. She said, “population!”.

The instant she said the word, it was almost as if a light was turned on in my head. Within seconds I realised how stupid I had been. Here we were talking about problems which are facing our planet, but people weren’t talking about the most obvious problem – too many people. I knew that we had something like 6.7 billion people in the world, and this was predicted to go to over 9 billion by 2050. But I’d never actually linked that with a great many of the problems we have in our world. continue reading

I believe this is my most important speech. I delivered it to more than 1,000 people attending the National Lions Convention in Canberra on Saturday 27 April 2013 and received a standing ovation.

In my speech I ask Rupert Murdoch to return to Australia and become our greatest philanthropist.
I also discuss how we can have a great economy without perpetual growth

Read my speech (below) or view my address on YouTube HERE.

Convention Centre, Canberra, Saturday 27 April 2013

I’m delighted to be here. I usually talk about adventure and exciting – but hopefully, responsible – risk taking. This time I’ll be covering more serious issues, however I can assure you there’ll be a positive ending!

The theme of this convention is “Youth – Opportunities abound”.

Opportunities certainly do abound for our young people, but first I believe we will have to make fundamental changes to our economic system as we reach the limits of growth. continue reading

Dick Smith says, “His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales has sometimes been portrayed in our media as an eccentric who talks to his plants; however, the truth is quite the opposite.

While our politicians in Australia lack leadership and our business leaders are obsessed with never-ending growth and bigger casinos, His Royal Highness is showing extraordinary leadership in major world issues”, Dick Smith says.

“His Royal Highness is a brave person with loads of common sense who is prepared to ‘say it how it is’. We all know that perpetual growth in population and the use of energy and resources is not sustainable in a finite world, yet our politicians are not game to tell us the truth” Dick Smith says.

READ THE FULL MEDIA RELEASE, INCLUDING IMPORTANT QUOTES FROM PRINCE CHARLES’ BOOK BY CLICKING HERE

Mr Williams, CEO of News Limited in Australia says we do not need to worry about the domination of the Murdoch press because we now have digital media”! Let’s see if it works.

Read Dick Smith’ controversial letter to Mr Williams

continue reading

See HERE for Dick’s interview with the New Zealand Herald on 22 August in the lead-up to Dick addressing the Futures Forum in Queenstown on 14 September 2012.