One of the frameworks we discussed for understanding greenhouse gas emissions was the Kaya identity - in which GHG emissions are a function of population, wealth (GDP/person), energy intensity (energy/GDP), and carbon intensity of our energy sources (CO2/E):
population x GDP/person x E/GDP x CO2/E
There is another strain of thinking out there which treats population in almost the opposite way. If human advancement is a function of technology and technology is a function of the number of minds working to develop technology, then more people leads to better technology and solutions for our energy/GHG problems. Conversely, fewer people will delay solutions, exacerbating these problems.
This isn't a bad way to think about things and I tend to agree with a corollary of this work: that we should be optimistic about the future (see The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley). However, the notion that more people = solutions is as simple as stating fewer people = solutions (as we discussed in class, this isn't really feasible or compelling). Here is a recent New York Times editorial by Erle Ellis that explains how human ingenuity limits population, enabling our planet to sustain more people.
population x GDP/person x E/GDP x CO2/E
There is another strain of thinking out there which treats population in almost the opposite way. If human advancement is a function of technology and technology is a function of the number of minds working to develop technology, then more people leads to better technology and solutions for our energy/GHG problems. Conversely, fewer people will delay solutions, exacerbating these problems.
This isn't a bad way to think about things and I tend to agree with a corollary of this work: that we should be optimistic about the future (see The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley). However, the notion that more people = solutions is as simple as stating fewer people = solutions (as we discussed in class, this isn't really feasible or compelling). Here is a recent New York Times editorial by Erle Ellis that explains how human ingenuity limits population, enabling our planet to sustain more people.
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