Vast majority population of the world hasn't even really contributed to climate change until the last couple decades. It's not the number of people that are doing it, it's the american lifestyle.
Re:Puffins are in trouble
by NeedMoreTea on Wednesday August 29, 2018 @12:38PM
(#17869602)
It's both. Numbers and our model of what "developed" is.
If only 10,000 people were living an American lifestyle the planet would cope just fine. When it's 1bn it seems like it's clearly becoming problematic. What of when it's 3bn?
If, as seems to be the case, there are 7bn who want, or are advertised at to want, a throwaway Western lifestyle, we're screwed. All 7bn. We can't pretend the numbers are not there or that most are going to happily remain with subsistence lives for all future generations.
It's probably more feasible to make larger families unfashionable or nudge them via the tax system than simply "fixing" climate change globally, habit and species loss.
"Population growth has been slowing"
Which of course means it is still growing. How many decades ago should it have started to fall in order to avoid catastrophic climate change or the incessant stream of environmental bad news and loss of species?
No one should feel obligated to sacrifice themselves. They should feel obligated to replicate less if they want their own children to inhabit somewhere worth living.