How Does Human Population Affect Climate Change

About informed people know that the global population is growing at a rapid rate — putting added pressure on our already limited supply of resources. But it remains difficult to communicate the sheer scale of the population challenge. Moreover, quantifying the extent of population growth's influence on global climate alter tin can be both difficult and controversial.

But, but because something may be controversial does not mean we should ignore it. It'due south clear that equally more people are added to the planet, climatic change but intensifies, and its devastating effects become more harmful to all of humanity.

Population Growth's Impact on Global Climate Change

Looking back over the last several centuries, global population trends show continuous expansion, both in terms of volume and rapidity. Fifty-fifty now, humanity is near its all-time highs. As Global Population Speakout explains: "Information technology is estimated that the world population reached 1 billion in 1804. It was another 123 years before information technology reached 2 billion in 1927, but took merely 33 years to achieve 3 billion in 1960. Thereafter, the global population reached four billion in 1974 (fourteen years), 5 billion in 1987 (13 years), 6 billion in 1999 (12 years), and 7 billion in 2011 (12 years)." We are expected to pass 8 billion in early 2023 — adding a billion in the 13 years since 2011.

Today, the global population grows by about lxxx million people each yr, or nearly 220,000 people every twenty-four hours. That'southward 220,000 new people who will add together their own unique carbon footprint to the planet for the duration of their lives. Of course, richer people tend to take a greater carbon footprint than the less affluent, but the latter are almost probable to disproportionately conduct the brunt of the harm.

With every new human comes a greater likelihood for greenhouse gasses to period into the atmosphere. Interestingly, humankind breathes out well-nigh 140 billion carbon dioxide breaths every infinitesimal. But more importantly, with each new man, we drive more than cars, build more than residential and commercial structures, and consume more than food. In fact, the global nutrient production system is one of the most pregnant drivers of global warming. Every bit human population grows, our overall need for nutrient increases, and already the global food production organization contributes roughly xxx% of greenhouse gas emissions .

Our current industrial civilisation about wholly depends on fossil fuels, and non merely for powering our vehicles. Nosotros use fossil fuels, specially oil, to manufacture vehicles, farm equipment, fertilizers and pesticides, agronomical plastics and and so much more. Then, we use fossil fuels to propel cars and trucks, tractors, airplanes, and ships. Our current industrial agriculture arrangement—like so many other aspects of modern life—couldn't function without fossil fuels.

Climate Modify Is Already Hither

Information technology tin be like shooting fish in a barrel to think of climate change as a threat that will merely impact us in the future. Just in reality, it'south already here.

As a result of our unmitigated population growth and reliance on fossil fuels, nosotros're seeing the dramatic effects of global warming play out before our very eyes. Global average temperatures have already increased past more than i degree Celsius since pre-industrial times, and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are college than they've been in more than 800,000 years.

For clarity, let'southward explore the deviation between the terms "climate change" and "global warming." Although sometimes used interchangeably, important distinctions exist between the two concepts. Co-ordinate to NASA's definitions of the terms:

Global warming is "the long-term heating of Earth'due south climate organisation ... due to human activities, primarily fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse levels in World's atmosphere."
Climate change refers to "both human- and naturally produced warming and the effects it has on our planet," and information technology is typically measured as the boilerplate increment in global surface temperature.

At Population Media Center (PMC), we are primarily concerned with human-forced global warming , considering that'due south where the opportunity lies for change. The need for change is urgent: NASA reports that homo activities are increasing the global average temperature past 0.36 degrees Fahrenheit, or 0.2 degrees Celsius, every ten years.

We are already seeing many signs that global warming is happening. For case, in June, a pocket-size Siberian boondocks that sits within the Chill Circle recorded its hottest-ever temperature, hitting 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit. Information technology's likely a record high for the Arctic Circumvolve and a disturbing glimpse into the hereafter.

Some other example of climatic change in action is the thousands of species that are shifting their habitats northward in an attempt to abscond warming temperatures. Analysis of creature migration patterns has shown that marine species are moving closer toward the Earth's poles past vi kilometers a year, on average. Amphibians are moving 12 meters a year, while insects are shifting north by about 18.5 kilometers. These troubling trends indicate that vast regions are becoming uninhabitable for certain species—a reality that many humans could soon face up, too.

Improving Sustainability by Empowering Women and Girls

Lifestyle changes, such as driving less and committing to recycling, aren't enough to stop climate change. As the authors of an Oregon State study explained, our best adventure for addressing global warming is to solve the trouble of overpopulation: "The potential savings from reduced reproduction are huge compared to the savings that can be achieved by changes in lifestyle."

A 2017 report by the Universities of Lund and British Columbia found that the "unmarried most effective measure an individual in the adult world" could accept to reduce their carbon emissions is to have 1 fewer child.

Sadly, the decision to take fewer children is not available to anybody. Millions of women around the earth do not accept the choice of whether or when to have children, or how many to take.

In many countries, women cannot attain reproductive autonomy considering of a diversity of obstacles, including:

Gender-based violence, such as domestic violence and rape
Harmful traditional practices, such as child marriage and female person genital mutilation
Economic discrimination
Reproductive health inequities

Of course, protecting and empowering women and girls is an ethical imperative. Working toward greater gender equity, and undoing the damage of the practices higher up, is a goal in its own correct. Just empowering women and girls too has important parallel benefits, including the chance to wearisome man-caused global warming.

We can improve sustainability by promoting behavior changes that help improve the status of women and girls. When we empower women and girls, they are amend equipped to determine their futures—which includes their reproductive destinies.

When women tin choose to accept fewer children, population trends will become much more than sustainable. Co-ordinate to the United nations, the global population in 2050 will be somewhere between eight.96 billion and 10.58 billion , depending on fertility rates. If global fertility rates decrease by simply 0.v children per woman, we volition have 3.v billion fewer people by 2100, lessening the bear on of climate change.

Behavior Change in Action

At PMC, we harness the power of well-crafted educational entertainment to generate positive behavior alter. To help solve the large, long-term problem of population growth, we focus on the here and at present: improving cognition and attitudes that will lead to greater empowerment for women and girls.

An example of our work in action is the radio show Agashi ("Hey! Look Again!"), which reached more than ii million residents of Burundi. The bear witness served as a valuable educational resources, pedagogy listeners about of import topics such as how to avoid unwanted pregnancies and disease. Agashi achieved widespread change in Burundi for a relatively modest price: just $0.74 USD to reach each listener.

When nosotros explore the level of alter brought near by Agashi, we can calculate the cost of individual changes attributable to the bear witness:

The estimated number of listeners with improved knowledge of family planning methods was 248,000. Accounting for the costs to produce the show, the Cost per Attributable Knowledge Change comes to approximately $six.seventy U.s..
The estimated number of listeners who were voluntarily tested for the AIDS virus within 24 months of the survey was 293,091. That amounted to a Cost per Attributable Beliefs Change of $5.67 US.
The estimated number of listeners with increased agency to negotiate condom utilise during sexual intercourse was 270,546, which amounts to a Cost per Owing Modify in Agency of approximately $6.14 US.

When you lot combine the numerous social issues that were impacted past one show, the price per overall change lowers dramatically.

Now Is the Time to Act

As we explored above, we are in the era of climate change, and we must pay attention. Our culture is facing an existential crisis that requires remediation today and building a new tomorrow.

Evidence all around us indicates that we are barrelling toward a catastrophe, only we must answer carefully in club to be effective. Information technology'due south important to exist judicious with our investments and programs and then nosotros don't simply put band-aids on deep, systemic problems.

Nosotros all must advocate for social and ecological sustainability and smoothen a spotlight on our world's systemic challenges. We must encourage innovation, move edifice, and creative partnerships for progressive programming and public education.

As part of these efforts, educational entertainment and behavior change communications are measurable, cost-effective interventions that enhance human rights. Shows like Agashi and other PMC programming attend to the immediate needs of audiences while also creating long-term systemic change—exactly what this moment calls for.

Agashi Case Study 1