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Population and the Environment
Stress on the environment and the depletion of natural
resources both reinforce and are exacerbated by gender
inequality, poor health and poverty, the Cairo conference
emphasized. Environmental stress is increasing,
due to both “unsustainable consumption and production
patterns” (including high resource consumption in
wealthy countries and among better-off groups in all
countries) and demographic factors such as rapid population
growth, population distribution and migration.
Affirming that “meeting the basic human needs
of growing populations is dependent on a healthy
environment”, Chapter III of the ICPD Programme
of Action(1) addressed the interrelationships among
population, economic growth and protection of the
environment, reiterating principles of Agenda 21,
adopted by the United Nations Conference on the
Environment and Development in Rio in 1992.
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| A VIRTUOUS CIRCLE |
Efforts to slow down population growth, to reduce poverty, to achieve economic progress, to improve
environmental protection, and to reduce unsustainable consumption and production patterns are mutually reinforcing. Slower population growth has in many countries increased those countries’ ability to attack poverty, protect and repair the environment, and build the base for future sustainable development. |
| —ICPD Programme of Action, para. 3.14 |
At both the Cairo conference and its five-year
review, the global community affirmed that greater
equality between men and women is an essential
component of sustainable development, including
environmental protection. Boosting the status of
women is now accepted as a prerequisite for lowering fertility and ensuring sound management of natural
resources. And awareness is increasing of the need to
address environmental crises, demographic realities,
gender inequity and rising consumption amid persistent
poverty in a holistic manner.
At both the Cairo conference and its five-year
review, the global community affirmed that greater
equality between men and women is an essential
component of sustainable development, including
environmental protection. Boosting the status of
women is now accepted as a prerequisite for lowering fertility and ensuring sound management of natural
resources. And awareness is increasing of the need to
address environmental crises, demographic realities,
gender inequity and rising consumption amid persistent
poverty in a holistic manner.
The 2003 UNFPA global survey found that countries
have made progress in addressing population
issues within the context of poverty, environment,
and decentralized planning processes. One hundred
and twenty-two countries reported developing plans
or strategies on population-environment linkages.
Forty countries have developed specific policies, and
22 have put in place laws or legislation on population
dynamics and the environment.
Still, the stakes are high, as human activity continues
to alter the planet on an unprecedented scale.
More people are using more resources with more
intensity and leaving a bigger “footprint” on the
earth than ever before.
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SIGNS OF ECOLOGICAL CHANGE |
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Over the past century and especially over the past 40 years, people have effected vast changes in the global environment.
Those most directly affected by environmental challenges, from water pollution to
climate change, are also the poorest—and least able to change livelihoods or lifestyles
to cope with, or combat, ecological decline. Some snapshots:
- Farmers, ranchers, loggers, and developers have cleared about half the world’s
original forest cover, and another 30 per cent is degraded or fragmented.
- Over the last half century, land degradation has reduced cropland by an
estimated 13 per cent and pasture by 4 per cent. In many countries, population growth has raced ahead of food production in recent years. Some 800 million people are chronically malnourished and 2 billion lack food security.
- Three quarters of the world’s fish stocks are now fished at or beyond sustainable
limits. Industrial fleets have fished out at least 90 per cent of large ocean predators
—including tuna, marlin and swordfish—in the last 50 years.
- Since the 1950s, global demand for water has tripled. Groundwater quantity and
quality are declining due to over-pumping, runoff from fertilizers and pesticides, and
leaking of industrial waste. Half a billion people live in countries defined as waterstressed
or water-scarce; by 2025, that figure is expected to surge to between
2.4 billion and 3.4 billion.
- Climate change. As a result of fossil fuel consumption, carbon dioxide levels
today are 18 per cent higher than in 1960 and an estimated 31 per cent higher than
at the onset of the Industrial Revolution in 1750. Accumulation of greenhouse
gases in the atmosphere, including carbon dioxide, is tied to rising and extreme
change in temperatures, and more severe storms.
- Sea level has risen an estimated 10-20 centimetres, largely as a result of melting
ice masses and the expansion of oceans linked to regional and global warming.
Small island nations and low-lying cities and farming areas face severe flooding
or inundation.
See Sources
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Numbers alone do not capture the impact of the
interactions between human populations and the
environment. The size and weight of the environmental
footprint each person plants on Earth is
determined by the ways people use resources, which
affects the quantities they consume. For instance, a
vegetarian who primarily uses a bicycle has a much
smaller impact than someone who eats meat and
drives a sport utility vehicle.
The ecological footprint of an average person in
a high-income country is about six times bigger than
that of someone in a low-income country, and many
more times bigger than in the least-developed countries.
The combined footprints of people in a region
determine the prospects for saving or permanently
losing the biological diversity found there.
Many economists and environmentalists use an
equation that ties together population, consumption and technology to describe their relative impacts
(I=PAT: Impact=Population x Affluence x Technology).
As birth rates fall, consumption levels and patterns
(affluence), coupled with technology, will take on
new importance in determining the state of the global
environment. But population will remain the critical
factor where lack of access to reproductive health
services and family planning, shortfalls in education
for girls and women, poverty and women’s limited
power relative to men continue to fuel high fertility.
GLOBAL CONSUMERS AND PERSISTENT POVERTY.
A rapidly growing global consumer class, now around
1.7 billion people, accounts for the vast majority of
meat eating, paper use, car driving, and energy use
on the planet, as well as the resulting impact of these
activities on its natural resources. This class is not
limited to industrialized countries; as populations
surge in developing countries and as the world economy
becomes increasingly globalized, more and more people
have the means to acquire a greater diversity of products
and services than ever before.(2)
Meanwhile, 2.8 billion people—two in five—still
struggle to survive on less than $2 a day. In 2000, 1.1
billion people did not have reasonable access to safe drinking water, and 2.4 billion people worldwide lived
without basic sanitation. Lack of access to clean water
and sanitation in the developing world led to 1.7 million
deaths in 2000.(3)
DIFFERENTIAL IMPACTS. Where population growth
and high levels of consumption coincide, as they do
in some industrial nations, the impact of growth is
significant. For instance, even though the United
States’ population is only a fourth as large as India’s,
its environmental footprint is over three times
bigger—it releases 15.7 million tons of carbon into
the atmosphere each year compared with India’s
4.9 million tons.(4) Hence the impact of the current
3 million annual population increase in the United
States is greater than that of India’s 16 million
increase.
Environmental impact can continue to grow even
as population growth levels off. In China, population
growth has slowed dramatically, but consumption of
oil and coal and the resulting pollution continues to
rise. While the Chinese Government is promoting
greater fuel efficiency for cars (see Box 6), it is not
promoting increased use of public transportation,
biking and walking, or efficient urban planning so
people would not have to drive.
Besides reducing overall resource use, governments
can reduce the environmental impacts of increased consumption by promoting appropriate technology that
uses resources more efficiently.(5) Industrial countries
can help the developing world by assisting with the
dissemination and adoption of cleaner technologies.(6)
Other demographic trends intersect with consumption
in surprising ways. As a result of rising incomes,
urbanization, and smaller families, the average number
of people living under one roof declined between
1970 and 2000—from 5.1 to 4.4 in developing countries
and from 3.2 to 2.5 in industrial countries—while the
total number of households increased. Each new house
requires land and materials. And with fewer people
in each household, savings from shared use of energy
and appliances are lost. A one-person household in
the United States, for example, uses 17 per cent more
energy per capita than a two-person household.
Even in some European nations and in Japan,
where population growth has stopped, changing
household dynamics are important drivers of
increased consumption.(7)
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PROMOTING MORE EFFICIENT USE OF ENERGY |
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A number of initiatives suggest countries are taking seriously the challenge of reducing harmful production and consumption
patterns. For example, China last year began to regulate its rapidly growing auto industry, requiring new family vehicles sold in major cities to meet air pollution standards as strict as
those in the United States and Western Europe. Starting this
year, new fuel economy standards for cars will be significantly
more stringent than those in the United States.
The transfer of energy-efficient technology is also growing. China has become the world’s largest manufacturer of efficient
compact fluorescent light bulbs, in part through joint
ventures with lighting firms in Japan, the Netherlands and
elsewhere. India has become a major manufacturer of advance
wind turbines using technology obtained through joint ventures
and licensing agreements with Danish, Dutch, and
German firms. See Sources
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