Population and climate change
By John Maday
| Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Free condoms and family planning services could help combat global climate change by slowing population growth according to the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), the Associated Press reports. The UNFPA released a report this week titled, "The State of World Population 2009," outlining how women, particularly in poor countries, bear the disproportionate burden of climate change, but have so far been largely overlooked in the debate about how to address problems of rising seas, droughts, melting glaciers and extreme weather.
The report shows, according to a UNFPA release, that investments that empower women and girls —particularly education and health — bolster economic development and reduce poverty and have a beneficial impact on climate. Girls with more education, for example, tend to have smaller and healthier families as adults. Women with access to reproductive health services, including family planning, have lower fertility rates that contribute to slower growth in greenhouse-gas emissions in the long run.
Read the full UNFPA report . Also read the AP article .
Birth control always is a sensitive subject, and people around the world have strong opinions about whether, and how, it should be practiced. Regardless, it is important that population, and measures to reduce population growth, enter into the dialog regarding environment, climate change and food production. A recent report from the U.N.’s Food and Agricultural Organization projects that world population will rise to 9.1 billion in 2050 from a current 6.7 billion. Whether or not you believe in global climate change, or that humans cause it, those additional billions of people will require more energy production, more water resources and more food. The same FAO report estimates food production will need to increase by 70 percent by 2050 to avert large-scale starvation. We in agriculture tend to view growing populations as potential customers, but that only works if their numbers are matched by growing affluence. Food producers and humanity as a whole will benefit most when societies emerge from poverty and participate in the global marketplace. In many parts of the world, population growth will need to slow before that can happen. — John Maday, Drovers managing editor.
