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Population: a red herring in the environment debate.


 The Earth Summit was meant to be the culmination of the environment debate around the world. The fact is that its reductionist agenda did not provide a comprehensive analysis of human interaction with the environment. The United States refused to have the issue of population linked with poverty in the Third World and over-consumption in the First World. The lifestyle of the United States was not up for negotiation. That population was not discussed is seen by many as a major failure of the Earth Summit. Population growth is one element in a complex series of interactions affecting the environment, of which resource consumption levels are clearly the most important. The issue of population growth is not presented in terms of resource sustainability, equity, or access, but rather simply by the assertion that there are too many people in the Third World. The population debate is often presented in a way counter to the principle of women's autonomy. While gender equity issues are about choice, much of the debate on population is about control. The discussions of population policies seldom mention the third most populous country, the United Stats, characterized by high consumption and inefficient use of technology. The UN Development Program's Human Development Index shows than on energy use and greenhouse emissions, the developing world's per capita contribution is 1/10th and 1/5th, respectively. The world's population could reduce by the 1 or 2 billion poorest people and have very little impact on the environmental crisis facing the world. A better way of presenting population issues is to relate gross energy consumption to population, focusing on countries with high populations and over-consumption such as the United States, Japan, Europe, and Australia. The First World has to start looking inward at its own unsustainable consumption and population practices.
