ABSTRACT
To bridge the gap between spending limits and service obligations, councils will either have to: make further dramatic efficiency savings, reduce services on offer, identify new income streams or realise novel product or process innovations. Paradoxically, the financial crisis represents a unique opportunity for leaders in local government to take more radical, 'game-changing' positive action. George Monbiot argues that: humankind should not anticipate a positive consumption transition from radical family planning. An apparent strength of Jonathon Porritt's call for greater population control is that it provides a favourable cost–benefit for family planning versus other carbon-reducing investments such as tree planting or solar power. Two environmental commentators, J. Porritt and G. Monbiot, disagree on the solution, although both use carbon emissions as a primary indicator of ecological footprinting. Porritt advocates population control as a dramatic solution to unsustainable consumption whereas Monbiot argues that this is unfair and instead affluent individuals should reduce what they consume.
