A opinião sempre polémica do físico Robert Park que, na sua coluna semanal What's New insiste na questão do crescimento populacional:POPULATION: UN REPORT LINKS CONTRACEPTION AND CLIMATE.Why, one wonders, has it taken this long? If, as most scientists believe, human activity is driving climate change the place to start is fertility rates. Even now, on the eve of the Copenhagen climate conference, this crucial report from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), The State of the World Population 2009, has been almost ignored by the US media. The tactic of those who prefer to do nothing is to warn that the link between population and environment is complex. That's all it takes to scare the media away. Of course it's complex; everything is complex. It is doubtless true that the starving masses are responsible for less greenhouse emission than the wealthy. Does this mean we have a stake in keeping them poor? I hope not. But the poor do have high fertility rates. Their offspring may grow up to join the Taliban or something, drawing wealthy nations into costly and wasteful wars with huge environmental consequences.HUNGER: UN FOOD SUMMIT IN ROME WAS A FAILURE.The goal was to find a new strategy to help farmers in poor countries produce enough to feed their people. Instead they wound up with a call for more international food aid. Meanwhile an estimated 1 billion people are seriously hungry. This was foretold by Norman Borlaug in his 1970 acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize. The green revolution, Borlaug warned, would be for naught if human reproduction was not controlled. We must face it some time.
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João Marques passando os olhos por... dererummundi.blogspot.com
CONTRACEPÇÃO E CLIMA
http://dererummundi.blogspot.com/2009/11/contracepcao-e-clima.html
- Tags:
- demografia
November 21 2009, 5:24am | Comments »
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João Marques passando os olhos por... dererummundi.blogspot.com
ONDE ESTÁ MALTHUS?
http://dererummundi.blogspot.com/2009/10/onde-esta-malthus.html
Como já é habitual destacamos aqui um dos controversos pontos levantados na sua coluna das sextas-feiras WHAT’S NEW pelo físico norte-americano Robert L. Park:POPULATION: WHERE IS MALTHUS WHEN WE NEED HIM?"Even as Nature featured the problem of "planetary boundaries”, a special issue of New Scientist asked, why isn't population control a key priority. Paul and Anne Ehrlich clearly thought it should be. They note, as Malthus did 200 years earlier, that we have a choice between a falling birth rate and a rising death rate. Jesse Ausubel, however, argued that technology will save us. Where has he been? We already have the technology to save us; the pill has no side effects, is 100% effective, and is cheap as aspirin. Reiner Klingholz worried that problems in Europe will grow as the European population shrinks. It's been shrinking for years, and the last time I checked Europe was doing great. Fred Pearce blamed overconsumption. The poor half of the world’s population, he says, is responsible for just 7% of the world's emissions. Perhaps he's suggesting that we should make sure they remain poor lest they exacerbate warming."Robert Park
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- demografia
October 3 2009, 3:48am | Comments »
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João Marques passando os olhos por... dererummundi.blogspot.com
A BOMBA POPULACIONAL AINDA FAZ TIC-TAC
http://dererummundi.blogspot.com/2009/06/bomba-populacional-ainda-faz-tic-tac.html
Da coluna de Bob Park, "What's New", de sexta-feira passada destacamos:POPULATION: THE BOMB IS STILL TICKING:Libertarians are fond of pointing out that John Holdren, the President's science adviser, collaborated with Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich (The Population Bomb). Shocking! Ehrlich’s best-selling 1968 book predicted mass starvation by the end of the 20th century due to unconstrained population growth. Ironically, the major health problem in the US today is an obesity epidemic. But not everyone lives in the US. Two technological developments postponed the looming catastrophe: the green revolution for which Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970, and the Pill. In most industrialized countries the Pill has brought the fertility rate down to about 2.1, needed for a stable population. In Muslim nations however, which suppresses women’s rights, fertility is as high as 8.0 (Afghanistan).
- Tags:
- tecnologia
- demografia
June 30 2009, 6:58am | Comments »
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