Population and Climate Change

A “Malthusian” theory about the relationship between population growth and the environment suggests that as populations grow, they will strip their resources leading to famine, hunger and environmental degradation.

As detailed further in this site’s section on population, that is an oversimplification and has largely shown not to be true. Instead, it has been factors such as politics and economics (i.e. how we use our resources and for what purpose) that has determined environmental degradation or sustainability.

For example, the world’s wealthiest 20% (i.e. the rich countries) consume approximately 80% of the world’s resources, while the rest of humanity shares the other 20% of resource consumed, as noted in the consumption section of this web site.

In regards to climate change, countries with large populations such as China and India have not been the countries contributing greenhouse gases for the decades that has been required to trigger climate change, as noted further above.

While in total amounts their emissions might be high (China is second largest emitter after the United States, for example), per person, their emissions are significantly smaller as noted earlier.

as countries such as China, India and Brazil grow in prosperity, there will be large populations with purchasing power, consuming more goods and services, thus making more demands on the planet.

Indeed, many environmentalists have constantly noted that if such countries were to follow the style of development that the rich countries used and emulate them, then our planet may not be able to cope much longer.

Over the past 150 years, deforestation has contributed an estimated 30 percent of the atmospheric build-up of
CO₂. It is also a significant driving force behind the loss of genes, species, and critical ecosystem
services. However, in the international policy arena, biodiversity loss and climate change have often moved in
wholly unconnected domains.

—
Climate, Biodiversity, and Forests, World Resources Institute, 1998

Carbon Sinks and Land

A mechanism suggested for tackling climate change and warming has been the idea of using "Carbon Sinks"
to soak up carbon dioxide. To aid in this, reforestation, or planting of new forests, have been suggested. This
is a popular strategy for the logging industry and nations with large forests interests, such as Canada, the
United States, various Latin American nations, and some Asian countries such as Indonesia.

While there may be some potential in this solution, it
cannot be effective on its own. This is because it
legitimizes continued destruction of old-growth and pristine forests
which are rich ecosystem and have an established biodiversity base (albeit shrinking now) that naturally
maintain the environment (at no cost!). Creating new forest areas would require the creation of entire ecosystems.
It is also criticized for being a quick fix that doesn't tackle the root causes effectively and doesn't lead to,
or promote actual emissions reduction.

It is unfair to expect the third world to make emissions reductions

The death toll that global dimming may have already caused is thought to be massive.

Climatologists studying this phenomenon believe that the reflection of heat have made waters in the northern hemisphere cooler. As a result, less rain has formed in key areas and crucial rainfall has failed to arrive over the Sahel in Northern Africa.

In the 1970s and 1980s, massive famines were caused by failed rains which climatologists had never quite understood why they had failed.

The answers that global dimming models seemed to provide, the documentary noted, has led to a chilling conclusion: “what came out of our exhaust pipes and power stations [from Europe and North America] contributed to the deaths of a million people in Africa, and afflicted 50 million more” with hunger and starvation.

If we were to use global dimming pollutants to stave off the effects of global warming, we would still face many problems, such as:

• Human health problems from the soot/smog
• Environmental problems such as acid rain
• Ecological problems such as changes in rainfall patterns (as the Ethiopian famine example above reminds us) which can kill millions, if not billions.

Climatologists are stressing that the roots of both global dimming causing pollutants and global warming causing greenhouse gases have to be dealt with together and soon.

LEDC's development

It is alleged that various governments are over-playing the problem of global warming in an attempt to limit and slow down LEDC's (less economically developed countries) industrial development. This would work in other countries' favour as it would eliminate any future industrial competition.

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