The article, Fight Global Warming: Wear a Condom discusses how some think that the rapid population growth is leading to an increase in global warming. Although people do seemingly play a large role in global warming, I think that the link between population control and climate control is a rash one. The article discusses how the majority of the population growth over the next 40-50 years will be in developing countries.
Developing countries actually release less CO2 into the atmosphere than countries that are already developed. So an increase in their population growth probably wouldn’t have as large of an effect as if say the U.S’ population grew the same amount. When a developed nation’s population grows there is a much larger effect than an undeveloped population. This actually is a very sad situation because the more developed nations affect CO2 levels and global warming, they are not the ones affected, developing nations are. If the average temperature increased only ten degrees Celsius, 35-50,000 deaths would be associated with this in developing nations because of an increase in diseases and living conditions, such as dengue, and schistosomiasis.
It is true that people and agriculture have an effect on our over all climate. The climate began to change approximately 8,000 years ago, the same time agriculture was introduced. However, agriculture is more highly used in developed nations, like our own, so population growth in developing nations would not have a huge effect overall.
It is known that for every one acre of trees removed, 26 tons of CO2 is released into the atmosphere. This is equal to the amount of CO2 released from driving a car for one year. Most developing nations don’t even have cars or the improved and advanced technology developed nations do. Because of this, they contribute much less to the overall CO2 emissions and global warming than developed nations do.
I do believe that global warming exists, I think it’s almost impossible to say that it does not. I also believe that the population is growing as a steady and fast rate. However, I don’t believe controlling the population is the only solution to the climate control issue. It may be one solution, however, if we start trying to control the population, we will have to start controlling almost everything else as well.
- Fight Global Warming: Wear a Condom, Maria Cheng, AP
- Human Side of Climate Change II, Class lecture on October 28, 2009
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