Climate change and fewer people

Submitted by Robert Douglass on Mon, 04/07/2008 - 11:46.

Tagged: environment • population control

There's more bad news for the climate. Carbon emissions in 2007 rose 3% over the year before. Scholars are now saying that simply capping emissions won't be enough to avert disaster, especially at a time when China is bringing an average of one large coal burning power plant online every week.

What irks me is that none of these discussions ever broach the topic of population growth or control. Nobody ever mentions that carbon emissions could be lowered if we could stop population growth, and perhaps even see population decline. Until we have new planets to colonize it doesn't make much sense to keep filling this one up.

It strikes me as particularly reckless and irresponsible that governments around the world use tax income to subsidize the fertility rate, offering economic incentives for producing more and more children. I would gladly see these taxes either struck or diverted to the much needed research of real alternative energies.

Other references:
The Optimum Population Trust, a leading UK thinktank on the environment.
The National Audubon Society
The Sierra Club
The Population Research Institute

You may find these documentaries interesting

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 04/07/2008 - 20:41.

I'd like to recommend these videos on the subject:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3309910462407994295

and

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6553294111918968656

Hope you find them informative :)

Here's an example

Submitted by Robert Douglass on Tue, 04/15/2008 - 14:57.

Look at the list of reasons given for the looming food shortages in many parts of the world:

There are several reasons for the food crisis:

The world population is growing constantly, while the amount of arable land is declining.

Climate change is causing a loss of agricultural land, irreversible in some cases, as a result of droughts, floods, storms and erosion.

Because of changing eating habits, more and more arable land and virgin forests are being turned into pasture for livestock. The yield per acre in calories of land given over to pasture is substantially lower than that of arable land.

The World Bank wants developing countries to introduce market reforms, including the abolition of protective tariffs, a move that often causes massive damage to local agriculture.

Speculators are driving up the prices of raw materials. The resulting high oil price leads to "energy crops" being cultivated instead of grain for food or animal feed.

Millions of people displaced by civil wars need food, and yet they themselves are no longer capable of producing food.

This is more evidence that fewer people and a vegetarian diet can both play their role in ensuring our future prosperity.

Another citation where population and starvation are linked

Submitted by Robert Douglass on Wed, 04/16/2008 - 08:04.

This Malthusian crunch has been building for a long time. We are adding 73m mouths a year. The global population will grow from 6.5bn to 9.5bn before peaking near mid-century.

Link