Comments scd has made

People haven't read ishmael closely, apparently

I'm sorry, but whoever invoked ishmael to say that pop. growth is the real issue in developed nations (which I'll assume most of us are from) is a moron.  Developed nations use 12 times more energy, per person, than in developing nations.  

What's more, our population growth rates are pretty close to zero (and in some european nations, are less than zero).

I plan on only having 2 children, myself, but if we don't change the ways in which we produce and consume energy, we are done for.  Slowing population growth alone isn't going to do it, even if we froze the population at today's level, we're screwed, if that's all we do, and here's why:

The real scary thing about pop. growth in developing countries is that, eventually, these countries will move towards more 'western,' energy-intensive lifestyles.  As mentioned above, this second move increases average energy consumption by 12 time.  Doubling the world population (and energy demand) will be tough to accomodate, but if this population growth is followed by a 12X increase in per-capita demand, we're finished.  This is why China is building, on average, one coal plant a week now, after pop. growth has slowed, and not during their period of high population growth.

So the real 'elephant in the room' isn't population growth.  The developed countries need to figure out ways to maintain their 'comfortable' lifestyle on less energy, so that when developing countries start looking to increase their standard of living, cheap and efficient means of energy conversion are the standard-bearers.  The sooner we can do this, the better.

/rantOn Umbra on small steps with big impacts posted 1 year, 1 month ago 18 Responses