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The elephant in the room that people don't talk about is population growth. If we don't get that under control, there really is no chance of us avoiding catastr
by jamesblonde 10y ago
The elephant in the room that people don't talk about is population growth. If we don't get that under control, there really is no chance of us avoiding catastrophic consequences, like melting of the methane clathrates.
- Scarblac 10y agoThe vast majority of the CO2 is produced by only a small part of the population (the rich people in the west), and they aren't the ones whose population is growing.
- JoeAltmaier 10y agoActually China is #1, triple the USA. Have they stopped growing? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_di...
- Scarblac 10y agoHow much of that is by factories producing things for consumers in the west?
- JoeAltmaier 10y agoIts mostly charcoal cooking fires if I understand right.
- _ph_ 10y agoChina has a birth rate distinctively under the one necessary for a constant population. But as people keep living longer, the total population is going to grow slightly for some years to come. The bigger environmental impact is, that the energy consumed per citizen is still growing as prosperity develops.
- WhoBeI 10y agoEducation, prosperity and equality can solve that. TED talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_on_global_population_growth?language=en https://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_on_global_population_...
- the8472 10y agoProsperity == higher living standards, which means more resource consumption per capita. So you merely substitute population growth with increased living standards as driving factor for emission increases.
- jamesblonde 10y agoI take issue with Hans Rosling (even though i happen to live in Stockholm). His message is 'dont worry, they will have babies for 50 years, then it will be all ok'. Sub-saharan Africa will have a similar population density to south east Asia. The world will have 10 billion. That's ok. But the truth is we don't know the carrying capacity of the earth. It's deeply unpopular to say this, but the only way i can see us solving this collective action problem is with a world government.