Earth at 8 billion: Consumption not crowd is key to climate

[Jim__]

From phys.org

The world is getting hotter and more crowded and the two issues are connected, but not quite as much as people might think, experts say.

On Tuesday somewhere a baby will be born that will be the globe's 8 billionth person, according to a projection by the United Nations and other experts. The Earth has warmed almost 0.9 degrees Celsius (1.6 degrees Fahrenheit) since the world hit the 4 billion mark in 1974.

Climate and population is a touchy subject for scientists and officials.

While more people consuming energy, mostly from the burning of fossil fuels, is warming the planet, the key issue isn't the number of people as much as how a small fraction of those people are causing way more than their share of carbon pollution, several climate and population experts told The Associated Press.

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[GenXer47]

1. the party's over

If you can afford an EV, get one. If you're retired, don't travel so much. Sell your second property. Wear a sweater instead of setting the heat to 72. Air condition only your bedroom. Time to live more humble lives - our kids and grandkids will be forced to - why shouldn't we?

[jimfields33]

2. Heat to 72? Yieks! I keep it at 80.

It’s electric heat so no problems with environmental issues. I’m waiting to get an EV until infrastructure is in place.

[Scrivener7]

3. All of this. But I've noticed some people get very angry when these things are suggested.

(I keep it at 65. )

If you are considering downsizing, think about an apartment. They're much more environmentally responsible. (Though the last time this was suggested on DU, I was stunned by the amount of misinformation and crazy shit people believe about apartment living, so I don't expect that to make much headway.)

[hunter]

4. The size of you environmental footprint is most closely related to your income.

Most of us have jobs that are not making the world a better place and whatever money we spend on ANYTHING eventually makes its way back to the fossil fuel industry and into the air as greenhouse gasses.

The most effective way to reduce one's environmental footprint in today's economic system is to make less money.

When we truly decide to quit fossil fuels, to save the world, we'll simply have to ban them outright and let the economic cards fall as they may. We could probably quit fossil fuels over the course of twenty years without too much economic pain. We have the technologies, we know what we have to do.

We could start today, replacing coal fired power plants with nuclear power plants until no coal plants were left, and then move on to gas power plants and the transportation sector.

Currently this thing we call economic "productivity" isn't productivity at all. Rather it's a measure of the damage we are doing to the earth's natural environment and our own human spirit.