Interestingly, the population growth is now expected to plateau between 2050 to 2100, so in this regard it won't be growing exponentially like it has in the past. I think Attenborough covered this in his recent A Life on Our planet documentary.
Apparently this is now validated across several disciplines including epidemiology, macro-economics, ecology and sociology. The influences are complex, related to changes in society, female empowerment, education, wealth and health. It seems the longer we are likely to live, the greater the chances of survival in a healthy state, the less children we have on average.
When I first heard this a few years back I thought it might be a bit of propaganda, designed to diminish the need for urgent change, but it isn't it and it doesn't diminish the need to act at all. Change is still required, because despite population growth slowing, resources continue to diminish and energy consumption per-capita rises. This is where the scope of the climate change issue broadens to become much much more than just greenhouse gas, and is the is the spawn of continuous economic growth which is different to population growth.
The ultimate climate change buster is fusion energy, it makes all other sources of energy redundant and filthy by comparison, but there is no guarantee it is either possible or cheap. Pretty much every other source of energy, is dirty by comparison, even solar, wind and tidal. But even if fusion became globally available tomorrow, resources would still diminish.
Humans are not a good judge of these things, for example almost every person you ask will tell you hydroelectric is clean. When in fact it's one of the most environmentally damaging forms of energy production you can have. They think nuclear fission is dirty and dangerous, when it's one of the safest and environmentally clean sources of energy currently available. Humans judge these things on emotion, to a human a nuclear power plant is a giant atomic bomb while a hydroelectric dam is a beautiful eco friendly lake, nothing is further from the truth. We see the very rare instantaneous effects of a major event, and ignore numerous occurences of the creeping death!
Apparently this is now validated across several disciplines including epidemiology, macro-economics, ecology and sociology. The influences are complex, related to changes in society, female empowerment, education, wealth and health. It seems the longer we are likely to live, the greater the chances of survival in a healthy state, the less children we have on average.
When I first heard this a few years back I thought it might be a bit of propaganda, designed to diminish the need for urgent change, but it isn't it and it doesn't diminish the need to act at all. Change is still required, because despite population growth slowing, resources continue to diminish and energy consumption per-capita rises. This is where the scope of the climate change issue broadens to become much much more than just greenhouse gas, and is the is the spawn of continuous economic growth which is different to population growth.
The ultimate climate change buster is fusion energy, it makes all other sources of energy redundant and filthy by comparison, but there is no guarantee it is either possible or cheap. Pretty much every other source of energy, is dirty by comparison, even solar, wind and tidal. But even if fusion became globally available tomorrow, resources would still diminish.
Humans are not a good judge of these things, for example almost every person you ask will tell you hydroelectric is clean. When in fact it's one of the most environmentally damaging forms of energy production you can have. They think nuclear fission is dirty and dangerous, when it's one of the safest and environmentally clean sources of energy currently available. Humans judge these things on emotion, to a human a nuclear power plant is a giant atomic bomb while a hydroelectric dam is a beautiful eco friendly lake, nothing is further from the truth. We see the very rare instantaneous effects of a major event, and ignore numerous occurences of the creeping death!
"Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck ....... Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck"