Climate Change Isn’t About Crowds, It’s About Consumption

(CTN News) – According to experts, Climate Change the world is becoming hotter and more crowded, but not as much as people think.

The United Nations and other experts predict that somewhere on Tuesday there will be the birth of the 8 billionth person on the planet. Almost 0.9 degrees Celsius (1.6 degrees Fahrenheit) have been added to the world’s temperature since 1974.

There is a lot of controversy surrounding climate change and population.

While more people consuming energy, mostly through fossil fuel combustion, is warming the planet, the crucial issue is not the number of people as much as how a small fraction of those people are causing way more carbon pollution than their share, several climate and population experts told The Associated Press.

According to Vanessa Perez-Cicera, director of the Global Economics Center at the World Resources Institute, we have a population problem. Most importantly, I believe we have an overconsumption problem.

As a result, the 8 billionth child born will “not have what we had … because there are not enough resources,” she said.

Kenya, which is experiencing a devastating drought, has 55 million people, 95 times Wyoming’s population. Wyoming emits 3.7 times more carbon dioxide than Kenya. Despite having 16.7% of the world’s population, Africa historically emits only 3% of global carbon pollution, whereas the United States contributes 21.5% of the globe’s heat-trapping carbon dioxide since 1959.

One-third of Pakistan was flooded by climate change-exacerbated events after one-third of the nation was flooded by the Canadian, Saudi and Australian averages. Qatar has 20 times more emissions per capita than Pakistan, according to the World Bank.

Climate scientist Bill Hare of Climate Analytics said that the question is not about population, but rather about consumption patterns. To begin with, it’s wise to look at the major northern emitters.”

One of the factors that makes a significant difference in fighting climate change has to do with population. This is according to Climate Interactive, a group of scientists who run intricate computer simulations that can be tweaked to see which factors matter most. According to the study, it had a relatively small impact in comparison to other factors, like economics.

In comparing two UN population projection scenarios, Drew Jones found only a difference of 0.2 degrees Celsius (0.4 degrees Fahrenheit). There was a difference of 0.7 degrees Celsius (1.3 degrees Fahrenheit) between no carbon price or tax and $100 a ton.

Hare said there is more than a hint of racism in the myth that overpopulation causes climate change.

“One of the biggest arguments that I hear almost exclusively from men in high-income countries is that, ‘Oh, it’s just a population problem,'” The Nature Conservancy Chief Scientist Katharine Hayhoe said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”

“The poorest 50% of the world are historically responsible for 7% of heat trapping gas emissions,” Hayhoe said. Yet Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, and Afghanistan are top of the list when it comes to countries bearing the brunt of the impacts of climate change.

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