7 Billion and Counting

When the first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970, population growth was of high concern.  The 1968 book  The Population Bomb⁽²⁾ become quite popular',  spawned organizations such as Zero Population Growth, and entered population into the mainstream of environmental concerns.  When The Population Bomb was published the world population stood at 3.5 billion⁽³⁾; it has now doubled.

With a growing population demanding more energy and goods, population growth is a significant cause of climate change, but the synergistic relationship between climate change and population growth is far greater and more complex than just a simple cause and effect.

We are currently witnessing a decline in both arable land and world-wide food production due to extreme weather events associated with a changing climate.  Severe droughts, floods, fires, temperature extremes,  and altered growing seasons are routinely occurring in virtually all regions of the world.  Less well defined, but nonetheless real, is a decline in beneficial insects and other pollinators, and the spread of exotic agricultural pests. 

Malnutrition is currently increasing in a number regions such as the Horn of Africa and Southern Asia. In addition to individual and local effects, malnutrition is of global consequence as it contributes to social unrest increasing political instability, population migration, warfare and the spread of disease.  Additionally, since children who are malnourished may never reach their full potential it robs deprives society of their contributions. 

As most of the population growth is occurring in developing nations it also makes it harder to slow climate change, as the increasing population will increasingly aspire to the standard of living of the  developed nations.  These developing, and growing, societies will like follow the same path as developed nations, slowing changing from individual energy sources such as wood or coal fires for cooking and heating, to central energy generation facilities utilizing cheap, readily available fuel such as coal-fired electric generation facilities, and ultimately to cleaner fuels.  The challenge is to short-circuit that pathway by jumping directly from individual energy sources to electricity produced from clean sources.  But that step has not yet been achieved in the developed countries, and seems far out of reach for developing regions.

The fact that climate change is global, and requires a global solution bears repeating.  The required cooperation between nations, and the very stability of the governments of nations can be easily undermined by the political instability, migration, competition for resources, and a declining land base caused by a growing population.

The consequences unrestricted population growth were spelled out by Malthus in the late 1700’s, but yet it remains a topic that most governments don’t what to talk about.  Yet, it is readily apparent that if they cannot control population growth and reduce global warming  the survival of our civilization remains uncertain.

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1.)  The world population clock was provided by 7billionactions.org, a United Nations Population Fund initiative.

2.)  Ehrlich, Paul R. (1968). The Population Bomb.. Ballantine Books. p. 161.

3.)  U.S. Census Bureau.  http://www.census.gov/population/international/data/idb/worldpopinfo.php