L16: Population, Environment, and Climate Change PDF

**[L16: Population, environment and climate change]** - Population can grow faster than the economy - Population: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 - Food: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 - Unrestrained population growth could lead to misery - Population invariably increases where means of subsistence incr...

**[L16: Population, environment and climate change]** - Population can grow faster than the economy - Population: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 - Food: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 - Unrestrained population growth could lead to misery - Population invariably increases where means of subsistence increases, unless checked by population growth - Subsistence refers to the minimal resources that are necessary for survival - 3 checks that keep population on level means of subsistence (see L8 for more) - Malthus felt it was unwise to assit the poor as this would indice the poor to reproduce faster causing misery - Neo-malthusians felt that famines are the result of too may people rathet than poor distribution of food or land being used for cash crops instead of feeding locals - Reluctancy to support population policies in mitigating the negative consequences of climate change - Family planning policies are too controversial - Limiting population growth vs 'right to develop' - Fertility lower in countries with higher greenhouse gas emissions - Countries with a higher population do not contribute much to climate change - Ethics of family planning policies (like one child in China) violate reproductive rights - The 'right to develop' demands restrictive measures if it is going to be universally applicable - Climate change is a large scale, long-term shift in weather patterns - Higher average temperatures - Observed changes in precipitation - Rise in sea levels - Warming oceans, melting glaciers - Sinking bodies of ice - Unusual and unpredictable weather has an indirect/direct impact on human lives, ecosystems, cultural heritage and infrastructure - Includes weather shocks and climate extremes - These may affect population processes in unprecedented ways - Climate change and fertility - Direct mechanisms - Physiological effects such as reduction in fecundity in extremely high temperatures and increased risk of malaria in wet season leading to foetal loss - Child death due to extreme climate events may lead to replacement with new births - Indirect mechanisms - Crop yields and income where favourable socioeconomic resources promote childbearing - Where climate change disrupts agricultural livelihoods, climate extremes may reduce contraceptive usage if financial resources necessary for access are diminished - Reduction in maternal nutritional status contributes to reducing fertility - Climate change, heath and mortality mechanisms - Physiological effects older people are highly susceptible to extreme temperatures during heatwaves and cold spells due to their low ability to thermoregulate - Poorer health of newborns in terms of lower birthweight or shorter in length at birth - Household food insecurity - Increased heat stress - Altered disease environment - Interactions between population and the environment is far more complex than what Malthus predicted - While global warming and climate changer are a global phenomenon, the impacts on the human population are not consistent across population subgroups - Ability to adapt and cope with these changes depends on population characteristics - Enhancing adaptive capacity is also key to minimise the climate's impact on human populations