Africa

A new report coming from Optimum Population Trust and carried out by the prestigious London School of Economics says that expanding access to family planning and contraception is about five times less expensive than low-carbon technology in combating climate change.Between 2010 and 2050 each $7 spent on basic family planning can reduce emissions more than a ton; to achieve that same level of reduction using low-carbon tech would on average cost $32 per ton.For more specific comparison, wind power would cost $24/ton, solar $51/ton, carbon capture and storage $57-83/ton.In total, expanding access to basic family planning throughout the globe would save 34 gigatons of carbon emissions over the next 40 years, the report concluded.On the significance of these findings, OPT's chairman Roger Martin said:"It's always been obvious that total emissions depend on the number of emitters as well as their individual emissions . . .The taboo on mentioning this fact has made the whole climate change debate so far somewhat unreal. Stabilizing population levels has always been essential ecologically, and this study shows it's economically sensible too.Between the nearly 80 million people added to the planet every year, and recent calculations projecting a population of 7 billion by 2011, prospects for a healthy future are not great. We are running out of resources, and polluting the only environment we have to live in. . . The UN has been issuing warnings for years now, and upon the release of a 2007 report, the director of the Environment Program said, "The human population is now so large that the amount of resources needed to sustain it exceeds what is available at current consumption patterns."Diminishing Returns In 1900, 7.91 hectares of land was available for every person, and by 2005 that share had dropped to 2.02 hectares, and is expected to fall further to 1.63 by 2050. Demand for resources, however, has only been growing, and stands at about 22 hectares per person. Not exactly sustainable.Feeding the population has become an increasingly difficult task, especially as regions that already struggle agriculturally,in particular, become drier because of global warming. With animals going extinct faster than ever, biodiversity is plummeting. Some have predicted that the oceans will be depleted of all the species now being fished if current consumption and fishing practices continue, since, according to the same UN report, we are catching 250 percent more fish than the oceans can produce. Also associated with population-induced environmental degradation are the "dead zones"--areas that cannot support marine life because of depleted oxygen supplies--that have expanded and multiplied around the world.The damage will be irreversible if sufficient action is not taken immediately, and the magic number, according to leading scientists, is 350. That's the safe upper limit for carbon, measured in parts per million, that our atmosphere can handle before the harm caused by climate change is completely irreversible.