Population numbers are inherently linked to climate change!

Yet we persist with an inherently counterproductive and fundamentally flawed economic model that requires not only endless population growth and mostly losers; but the consumption of fuel likely to increase the rate of warming!?

Don't worry, endless war, massive fire, famine and flood will wipe out enough of us to bring about some balance,preferably before we have crossed an irreversible tipping point.

Those in denial need to turn off the air conditioning that hides the "evidence" for them! The deniers equivalent of burying the head in the sand? [Hey if I can't feel it it ain't happening!?]

Hopefully they will be the first ones losing everything as a consequence of man made, [money for it own sake,] created climate change!

One notes that our sun the engine room of most of our climate changes has been in a waning (cooling) phase since the mid seventies! (NASA) Go figure?
Rhrosty.

Population growth IS the problem.
Don`t hold your breath Rhrosty, I suspect we are well past the tipping point.
At least my, non existent, grandkids won`t suffer.

Population growth is NOT the problem. It's already under control in most o the world, and the population increase is now being driven by people living longer.

Meanwhile anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are so high that they'd still be a big problem with half the population.

Having said that, there's an interesting alternative viewpoint to consider:
http://www.monbiot.com/2015/11/19/pregnant-silence/

83 million new people per year increase. Living longer does not account for that.
Population growth IS THE PROBLEM.
There are none so blind as the old, but true, expression goes.

It depends what the "PROBLEM" is:

Yes, survival can be supported not only with current numbers but even with more, if that's all we want.
So even our span of life, which could technically even be increased.

But not the quality of our life.

In order to sustain larger numbers of humans, two things are inevitably required:
1. Regimentation and streamlining. More rules and regulations, more uniformity - less freedom.
2. Ever higher technology, which takes us further away from both nature and morality and makes us wonder why we are even here in the first place.

THIS is the elephant in the room.

The Problem is Environmental Destruction.
Homo Sapiens is the only animal species actively engaged in destroying its own environment for its own selfish gratification.
When the Environment has gone so are we. It is what keeps us alive. As you say we shall wonder why we are even here in the first place if we cannot enjoy what this beautiful planet can offer if treated kindly.

I love the catch phrase 'elephant in the greenhouse'.

It is generally agreed that education of women and their access to birth control is the major influence in slowing population increases. Western nations, especially US, pussy foot around about giving aid to access to birth control. While some Asian countries are bringing population increase under control, Africa is a basket case.The two major religions in Africa are Islam and Roman Catholic. People brought up in Western societies ignore the RC Church anti-contraceptive teachings, but not so in low educated countries. Muslims have large families, I don't know whether that is faith, or is it culture, like wearing a niqab.

The problem on the consumption side is that we are wedded to a standard, which even if moderated, is inconceivable if applied to everybody.

Population growth is attended by demand growth and that demand is a key to frustrations of existence.Life is stressful,incapable of satisfying greed or desire. We cling to things we believe will make us happy or keep us safe.

A solution, then, is to stop clinging and attaching. It is only when we see this for ourselves that we can stop grasping.
But when eventually we see it, the letting go is easy. The craving will seem to disappear of its own accord.

But the fact is, you can't simply by an act of will. You can't just vow to yourself: "okay, from now on I won't crave anything." This doesn't work, because the conditions that give rise to craving will still be present.

An answer therefore is to heighten personal awareness of why you crave something and whether that craving could affect others adversely. It is essential to recognise the cause and the effects of your thoughts and actions.
If you try to examine your ethical conduct, what you do for a living, and your moment-to-moment mindfulness, you'll become aware that every action of body, speech, and mind produce measurable outcomes.

Choosing good ones can be gained by a path of exploration, awareness, and personal discipline; a path which can be walked for the rest of your life.

If we invented a new economic paradigm to take into account the fact that unchecked population growth is our enemy, as is endless thoughtless consumption. Designed obsolescence must yield to enduring quality!

If our more rational model relied almost exclusively on finding and ending poverty in all it's forms and guises, wherever we find it, we just couldn't help but make everyone better off.

And if we coupled that to waste not want not recycling, we'd create endless commercial entrepreneurial opportunities for many of us.

And if we coupled that to cooperative capitalism wherever possible. We could rescue our world.

People would finally understand you just don't have to beat joe blow down the road to have a wealthy and thoroughly examined life, and enough of everything, with enough economic activity to keep all the balls in the air.

Private enterprise should simply focus on providing the very best service or product and just let the profits take care of themselves, ably assisted by word of mouth. The real key to enduring success!

We simply can't create a world where fewer and fewer of us predate on the rest and just for very temporary hollow financial gain.

Look, trickle down just doesn't work, however push up could!

And in so doing, literally fore everyone to take several steps up the socioeconomic ladder.

Cheaper energy options like cheaper than coal thorium, and endlessly sustainable biogas production will underpin such changes, hopefully while we still have time. Genuine and inherently fair tax reform will help!

Education of the womenfolk and giving them the right to simply say no! Is the key to getting on top of population growth!

As is compulsory castration of those "men"/animals who would have it otherwise?
Rhrosty.

Rhosty, global warming is rubbish, burning fossil fuels causes global dimming.

ateday, but your children will, left wing poverty creation schemes are killing their hip pocket nerve now.

Aidan, YOUR JOKING RIGHT? white Europeans are not breeding, everybody else is breeding like flies.

ateday, too true, the dumb are breeding & smart are not.

Yuyutsu, 1, NO & 2, YES.

ateday, true again.

Please explain the 'logic' if there is any behind this statement -
"Yet we persist with an inherently counterproductive and fundamentally flawed economic model that requires not only endless population growth and mostly losers; but the consumption of fuel likely to increase the rate of warming!?"

Who is forcing or even encouraging the Arabs, Africans, South Americans and other Third World inhabitants to substantially over breed? What benefit are they providing by increasing their numbers?

Again, I warn, the Islamic expansionism is a far greater concern to the welfare of our grandchildren and great-grandchildren over the next 100 years than the naturally occurring climate changes we are currently experiencing.

imacentristmoderate, the global dimming effect from fossil fuels doesn't last anywhere near as long as their warming effect. Particulates don't stay in the atmosphere as long as CO2 does.

You seem to be ignoring the problem of global warming because you don't want it to be true and therefore assume it to be false. But reality isn't like that. There's overwhelming evidence showing that global warming is a real, very serious (but still solvable) problem.

It is the Right, not the Left, that create poverty. The Left want to end poverty, but the Right don't want to do anything contrary to the interests of the rich.

I'm not joking. There are very few parts of the world where people are still breeding like flies. And last time I checked, white Europeans were breeding faster than the Japanese.

The current world population of 7.3 billion is increasing by 83 million a year. It will reach 8.5 billion by 2030, 9.7 billion by 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100, assuming UNPD’s medium variant projection is accurate. If, however, a higher fertility rate prevails this century, there would be 16.6 billion people by 2100, assuming another global doubling is supportable.

India will overtake China as the most populous country in seven years. By then, India's population will have increased five-fold - from 250 million in 1950 to 1.4 billion.

Africa’s population will double in the next 35 years. By 2100, almost 40 percent of the world’s population will live on this one continent. Nigeria, with only 52 million people in 1950 and 170 million today, is projected to reach 400 million by 2050, an eight-fold increase in a century.

By 2100, India could have a population of 1.6 billion, but China’s numbers are projected to decline by about 30 percent to one billion people. However, an increase in average fertility of just 0.50 children per woman this century - as assumed in UNPD’s high variant projection – would see India with 2.6 billion people in 2100, and China with 1.6 billion.

Dealing with climate change is just not that hard! The first step is to isolate all those with a vested interest in the cause, namely those who have a commercial interest in the consumption of dirty carbon creating fossil fuel!

And then set about changing outcomes! And to be fair, allow those using coal and other dirty fossil fuels to sequester the carbon they create.

And given if they sequester it in oil rich carbon absorbing algae, to create a new source of income/profit.

Only the most rigid recalcitrant would make a problem in achieving something called clean coal.

After clean coal there's clean energy, which should include broad scale carbon free solar thermal plants, or very local energy, reticulated within a narrow target market via carbon free thorium reactors, which given energy dependant industrial applications ( steel and aluminum smelting, ship and sub building, car manufacture, miniature truckable power plants) could more than halve the cost of industrial power!

After which we have endlessly sustainable carbon neutral biogas>ceramic fuel cells, which which to power the whole domestic economy, with baseload power for less than quarter what we mugs fork out now. It's just not that hard to decarb an economy, and all while massively improving our economic performance!

Simply put, a climate changed future is so fraught, we simply cannot allow a few very powerful voices to decide our future, with more of the same that created our current problems to begin with!
Rhrosty.

"Half a century ago, the cause célèbre was dangerous anthropogenic population change. So why is climate alarmism now centre-stage?"

I honestly think you answered your own question.
How many times must I say it?
http://youtu.be/Imy8W7koBfE
http://www.infowars.com/group-that-admitted-manufacturing-global-warming-threat-still-pushes-same-hoax/

Armchair, saying it an infinite number of times wouldn't make it true!

I'm baffled as to how anyone could take seriously the allegation that Global Warming's a hoax invented in 1990 by the Club Of Rome. It's an observed phenomenon, and I was aware of it in the 1980s even if you weren't.

What would It take to convince you to abandon the hypothesis that it's coincidence the world's warmed while we've increased atmospheric concentrations of a gas known to cause warming?

Aidan, wrong on ALL counts, Syria's population tripled over the last 40 years, 18 years of global cooling, NO sea level rise & crops increasing in productivity from the extra CO2.

How does 18 years of global cooling equate to 2015 being the hottest year on record??
Am I missing something?

One out of caracter hot day and it wiped out 30% of the crops around here.
With all of that sun cooling going on ,that must mean it's getting hotter and hotter year by year

I would of thought that most people have enough real challenges in life without creating inmaginery ones like the gw religion and over population mantras. Shows we are moral beings who have mostly trashed decent values so now need some moral outrage to cover our corrupt natures. Usually people who have dumped wives and kids or live in perverted relationships that now want to impose their new found green morality and fanciful doctrines on others. They fly around the world staying at fancy hotels telling others turn off their air conditioners. Really quite hilarous if not so sick. Shows how easily deceived humans are when dismissing the simple truths of life.

WHETHER OR NOT CLIMATE CHANGE EXISTS THEY ARE USING IT AS AN AGENDA TO HAVE CONTROL OVER NATIONS ECONOMIES BY INSTITUTING GLOBAL CARBON TAXES.

DO YOU GET IT NOW TTBN?