Key report on population and climate change

This new report is very important, though it surely states what ought to be self-evident to anyone aware that we live on a finite planet:

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aa7541

See also:

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/…/pdfs/OSUCarbonStudy.pdf

The core argument of such studies actually echoes that of seminal publications such as ‘Limits to Growth’ Report and the ‘Blueprint for Survival’ (1972). Back in the late 1940s and early 1950s, for example, writers such as Fairfield Osborn, William Vogt and Samual Ordway were arguing the same case. Indeed, there were early pre-echoes long ago, by, for example, the Chinese philosopher Confucius, (l551 – 479 BC), the Christian scholar Tertullian (c. 155 – c. 240 AD) and the Berber historian-scholar Ibn Khaldoun (1332–1406)

So, on a finite planet, expansion of any variable, be it human numbers or per capita consumption, cannot continue. The same applis to the irreducible heat and material waste by-products of technological processes. Furthermore, these variables multiply each other’s effect.

There is overwhelming evidence and not just in the field of climate changes, that collecitvel,y humanity has transgressed safe boundaries: extreme weather events, acidification of the oceans, ‘plasticisation’, a noxious cocktail of air and water pollution, soil erosion, poisonous of soils, salinisation, aquifer depletion, species extinction, deforestation, wetland loss, declining availability of high quality and easily accessible minerals, overcrowding, congestion, increasingly violent competiton for land and resources…

Perhaps the real question is why so many people deny or evade the issue. The issue, is of course, not just populaiton growth but it is the critical driver of climate change and all those other ills. Uniquely, it automatically mutliplies the impacts of all those other variables in the equation of ecological ruin. It might be noted as well that the effects of ‘better’ technology’ are sometimes thwarted by the ‘rebound effect’ (see: http://www.alternet.org/b…/efficiency-sustains-broken-system, with more exmaples here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX_iKAh4S1M

Population and climate change

A good article here on growing human numbers and problems such as greenhouse gas emissions. Yet a huge number of ‘climate change’ campaigners refuse to see any link.

http://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i2102

It is a bit sad when the normally ‘cautious’ BMJ is prepared to spell out things so clearly while publications such as ‘Green World’ maintain a studied silence (unless it is to celebrate ‘open borders’ and the cramming of more people into already overcrowded areas)

See also

Click to access carbon%20legacy.pdf

Population boomers in Turkey

Good news for the planet!

http://www.independent.co.uk/…/turkish-president-recep-tayy…

It will be interesting how many ‘progressives’ are prepared to critcise such thinking.

Turkish President Recep Erdogan doesn’t think Muslims should use contraception

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said “no Muslim family” should practice contraception and urged women to have more children. Speaking at an educational…

INDEPENDENT.CO.UK

Birth Dearth scare

This looks like a good response to all the scare stories about population decline and a ‘birth dearth’:

http://www.populationconnection.org/thegoodcrisis/

Also underpinning such scare stories are deep prejudices about older citizens, their on-going contribution to society devalued.

Good Crisis

In many developed countries—Japan, South Korea, Italy, Spain, Germany, Canada, and the United States among them—fertility rates are below replacement rate. It’s far from cause for alarm despite claims by “birth dearthers” that we face social and…

POPULATIONCONNECTION.ORG

Overpopulation in Egypt

So many people deny or evade the issue of human numbers. Yet the case of Egypt shows the folly of such myopia and ignorance:

How will Egypt rein in its explosive population growth?

Egypt’s population is growing at a rate five times higher than that of developed countries, and twice as high as developing countries, according to the state-run Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).On Sunday,…

MADAMASR.COM

Overpopulation in Israel

Most accounts of the interlocking crises in the Middle East leave out the population dimension. Yet numbers count there as much as anywhere else. There is no way Israel can live in peace with its neighbours if its population keeps growing and growing. The same applies, of course, to the ‘other side’.

Overpopulation is pushing Israel over the edge, expert says

Dr. Alon Tal, founder of Adam Teva V’Din – Israel Union for Environmental Defense, says that the most pressing issue facing Israel today is overpopulation.

JPOST.COM

Population and Earth Day 2016

With the 2016 ‘Earth Day’ around the corner, it is worth reminding ourselves of the Earth’s biggest problem: too many people:

http://www.npg.org/…/uploads/2016/03/2016-Earth-Day-Flyer-c…

Whatever the cause, it will be a lost one if we do not stabilise restricting then, in civilised ways, reduce human numbers. There are few problems that will not be easier to solve if there were fewer people. There are few solutions that will not be easier to implement if there were fewer people.

Of course in the equation of unsustainability, other factors count and in a few cases are more directly significant. They are 1) per capita consumption, ie material ‘affluence’ and 2) technology, ie the means we use to provide for that consumption, from farming and mining to manufacturing and transportation. But human numbers are unique in the Populaiton and Earth Day 2016 equation in that they automatically multiply the impact of the other two factors.

All three factors are mediated through various socio-economic structures and, more importantly, belief systems. Perhaps the biggest challenge is the taboo that now has descended over even simple discussion of population and appropriate policy responses.

Meanwhile an increasing number of governments are restricting access to family planning and sex education as well as encouraging what they call a ‘demographic dividend’ (eg http://www.newindianexpress.com/…/…/09/29/article2453940.ece). That includes baby bonuses and other inducements. Yet it is taboo to propose the opposite eg a ‘no claims bonus’ for those with no, one or two and no more babies.

It is indeed a case of those whom the gods would destroy they first drive mad. It will be revealing how many organisations use Earth Day to point to the planet’s biggest problem.

www.npg.org

NPG.ORG

Population growth & failing states

There are some revealing statistics here on the link between local population growth and the ‘failing state’ syndrome. Of course, population is not the only driver. Religious extremism directly plays its independent malign role, for example. Local people often lose out badly in economies structured around exports of cash crops and so forth (perhaps as a result of IMF-imposed ‘reforms’ and/or a legacy of the days of ‘old-fashioned’ imperialism).

But booming human numbers in ‘failing states’ do indeed exacerbate the situation, not least by exacerbating other factors, especially via increased competition for declining physical resources and socio-economic opportunities. The report also brings out today’s ‘failing states’ cannot be just dismissed as a local problem, not least given the scale of migration likely to result.

Failing States: Many Problems, Few Solutions | Inter Press Service

Joseph Chamie is a former director of the United Nations Population Division and Barry Mirkin is a former chief of the Population Policy Section of the United Nations…

IPSNEWS.NET

Population – mouths-food crunch biting

This is a new report on the population-food crisis. It might be remembered that people do not live by food alone. We need many things not just to stay alive but to sustain reasonably secure and convivial societies as well as give individuals opportunities for fulfilling lives. Provision of these things (as well as catering for non-human species) eats into what is available to produce, distribute and store food.

www.npg.org

NPG.ORG

Population – looking disaster in Nigeria

More evidence of how rapid population growth simply overwhelms investment in infrastructure, job creation, housing and so forth:

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFKCN0XH1QK?sp=true

But even slow growth will have the same effect eventually in a finite world. It’s a amazing how many people refuse to see this. Perhaps they need to study the basic mathemathics, as briliantly explained here:
http://www.albartlett.org/…/arithmetic_population_energy_vi…

Roaring population growth outpaces Nigerian investment spree | Top News | Reuters

LAGOS (Reuters) – Waiting at a crowded bus stop for a ride to work, Osheme Antoine dreams of raising a big…

AF.REUTERS.COM|BY BY ULF LAESSING