Carbon footprints, population demographics and me.

The Challenge of reducing carbon footprints – Should we be thinking more about population demographics?

By Dian Spear

Trying to preserve the environment and to reduce climate change is a difficult task, but it is something that each one of us can contribute towards. It has been said that being vegetarian (or better still vegan) is one of the best things that you can do for the environment. However, it’s not as simple as that. In my personal capacity, following a vegetarian diet and trying to buy local foods, is offset every now and then when I notice that the nuts I bought are from America, my imitation (pea protien) mince is from France and my rice milk is from Belgium. So I try to cut some of these out. But, I also have dogs who eat meat-based food and a vegetarian diet for my dogs would take a lot of effort, although apparently it’s possible.

I also try to do little things like switch off my computer and computer screen over night and turn off the lights in the building. I cook with gas and use a hotbox1 to cook my rice. I also try to reduce my consumption by not buying too much “stuff” including clothes and shoes. We all know transportation is a huge emission contributer and I like to think that keeping my old car is less destructive than getting a new car that has low fuel consumption. It seems it is and apparently replacing my car with a second hand one will be more environmentally friendly than buying a new one. I cycle to work when I can and now that work is far away from home, I’ve opted for  an electric bike. However, the downfall of the electric bike is that the battery fails and needs replacing. So it’s back to the car for a while. The train makes a long, inconveneint commute and after discussing the classic carpooling option at work colleagues aren’t keen, again because of the convenience factor. 

Despite all this effort to keep my carbon footprint low, this year I will have flown to Windhoek, Gaborone and Nairobi for work, to Antananarivo for holiday, and to London and Harare to see family. At the end of the day, my carbon footprint is rather gigantic and very much more like a developed rather than developing world person.

So, what to do? I could lead a more local lifestyle by living close to work, growing my own food, eating food from near by and not flying all over the place. But this is probably not going to happen anytime soon. What else? There is perhaps something that I could still do in my lifetime. Maybe the best thing that I can do is not have children and be the source of a multitude of descendents that will have an impact on the environment no matter how they live their lives. Of course this isn’t a new idea and many environmentalists have made concious decisions to do just this.

I have spent a long time studying and doing research in the field of conservation and reducing population growth rates is an unspoken but recognised solution to conservation problems (also see Coole, 2013). Likewise, there is no denying the link between human population growth, industrialisation and greenhouse gas emissions (O’Neill et al., 2012). 

Thinking about the type of research that we are doing at ACDI on vulnerable communities we will need to think about developing world population dynamics and interactions with climate change. In human geography classes we learned that people in the developing world have lots of children so that the children can look after them later on. However, through research in the ASSAR project we are finding that in Namibia pensions are an important source of income to rural families at our study site. On the otherhand, in some places poor people have children to receive benefits. 

Nowadays though, having lots of children in rural Africa might make you more vulnerable to climate change. The greatest impacts of climate change and greatest population growth rates are both in the developing world (Stephenson et al., 2010), and some areas with high population density in Africa are expected to receive less rainfall in the future and become more vulnerable to climate change (Lopez-Carr et al., 2014). Although it is acknowledged that the developed world consumes more, consumption in the developing world is also increasing (Stephenson et al., 2010). So, from both the perspective of reducing greenhouse gas contributions to climate change and reducing the effects of climate change, reducing population growth rates would be beneficial (Stephenson et al., 2010).

Telling people to have fewer children is not simple in the developed or developing world. Perhaps from a more developed world perspective, you get people that say that selfish people are the ones that don’t have children. In contrast to this notion, more and more people are starting to say that it is selfish to have children for your own enjoyment when they will be brought into today’s world with a potentially bleak future. There are also those that decide not to have children because of environmental reasons. However, I have had a number of friends that had these sentiments but ended up having children, either unintentionally or because of pressure from their spouses. 

Clearly, reducing population growth rates globally poses a substantial challenge for numerous reasons, many of which are outside the scope of this musing. What is certain, however, is that reduced population numbers will have many benefits (Stephenson et al., 2010). But, reducing the number of children people have globally isn’t enough and we still need to reduce consumption and the way we live our lives (Bradshaw & Brook, 2014). So I’ll keep trying to consume less and do battle with my biological urge to reproduce. However, like many other aspects of trying to reduce my carbon footprint, this probably won’t be easy, so no promises.

 Footnote:

¹ see  the haybox and wonderbag – I was talking to some colleagues the other day that work at ACDI and they had never heard of a hotbox. I bring my rice to the boil and then put it in my “hotbox” and it cooks perfectly in 15 minutes while I cook the rest of the food. You can also put your food in a sleeping bag. The wonderbag was also mentioned in Muhammad Rahiz’s blog.

 References:

Bradshaw, C.J.A. & Brook, B.W. 2014. Human population is not a quick fix for environmental problems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 111, 16610-16615.

Coole, D. 2013. Too many bodies? The return and disavowel of the population question. Environmental Politics 22, 195-215.

Lopez-Carr, D., Pricope, N.G., Aukema, J.E., Jankowska, M.M., Funk, C., Husak, G., & Michaelsen, J. 2014. A spatial analysis of population dynamics and climate change in Africa: potential vulnerability hotspots emerge where precipitation declines and demographic pressures coincide. Population and Environment 35, 323-339.

O’Niell, B.C., Liddle, B., Jiang, L.W., Smith, K.R., Pachauri, S., Dalton, m. & Fuchs, R. 2012. Demographic change and carbon dioxide emissions. Lancet 380, 157-164.

Stephenson, J., Newman, K. & Mayhew, S. 2010. Population dynamics and climate change: what are the links? Journal of Public Health 32 150-156.

Image: http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/populations/popclipart.jpg

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are solely those of the author in her private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of the ACDI, or any other entity affiliated with the ACDI.