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| We're all responsible for climate change |
"....... That brings us to the issue of population growth.
In 2017, the American Institute of Biological Sciences published an
open letter signed by over 15,000 scientists, including Jane Goodall and
E.O. Wilson, titled “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second
Notice.” It states, “We are jeopardizing our future by not reining in
our intense but geographically and demographically uneven material
consumption and by not perceiving continued rapid population growth
as a primary driver behind many ecological and even societal threats.”
It was the most scientists to ever co-sign a published journal article.
Wealthy
countries don’t have the highest birthrates, but our birthrates coupled
with our high standards of living makes us the most important drivers
of population growth in terms of climate change. Today, a child born in
the United States will have a carbon footprint 7 times higher than that
of a child born in China, and 168 times higher than that of a child born
in Bangladesh. From a climate change perspective, it takes 168 births
in Bangladesh to have the emissions footprint of a single American
birth, or a ratio of 168 to 1. The true ratio of Bangladeshi to American births is 18.8 to 12.5, or a ratio of 1.5 to 1.
Meaning, our birthrate will have to fall substantially, to a rate of
just 168 to 1, before our contribution to climate change becomes equal.
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