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This depends heavily on technological forecasting. There's a decent chance that, by the time those countries reach the level of development where their carbon f
by jimrandomh 9y ago
This depends heavily on technological forecasting. There's a decent chance that, by the time those countries reach the level of development where their carbon footprint is a serious concern, they'll have skipped over fossil fuels and gone to solar, similar to how they skipped wired telephony and went to cell phones.
(Of course, education in poor countries is beneficial and worthwhile regardless. But if you have to decide between investments in education or public health in a poor country, I've gotten the impression there's lower-hanging fruit in public health.)
- Apes 9y agoA country with a 3-4% growth rate is doubling its population about every 20 years. For that country's carbon footprint to just remain stable, they will have to halve the amount of carbon emissions per person every 20 years. This means that these countries will need to completely replace their infrastructure with technology and processes that are twice as efficient every 20 years, just to keep their carbon emissions stable. I just don't see any way for technology and infrastructure to outpace population growth that fast. Most realistically with population growth this high, there is probably going to be an explosion of carbon emissions regardless of how much green technology is rolled out in parallel.