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Population control called key to deal on climate change 
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Population control called key to deal
By Li Xing (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-10 07:37

COPENHAGEN: Population and climate change are intertwined but the population issue has remained a blind spot when countries discuss ways to mitigate climate change and slow down global warming, according to Zhao Baige, vice-minister of National Population and Family Planning Commission of China (NPFPC) .

"Dealing with climate change is not simply an issue of CO2 emission reduction but a comprehensive challenge involving political, economic, social, cultural and ecological issues, and the population concern fits right into the picture," said Zhao, who is a member of the Chinese government delegation.

Many studies link population growth with emissions and the effect of climate change.

"Calculations of the contribution of population growth to emissions growth globally produce a consistent finding that most of past population growth has been responsible for between 40 per cent and 60 percent of emissions growth," so stated by the 2009 State of World Population, released earlier by the UN Population Fund.

Although China's family planning policy has received criticism over the past three decades, Zhao said that China's population program has made a great historic contribution to the well-being of society.

As a result of the family planning policy, China has seen 400 million fewer births, which has resulted in 18 million fewer tons of CO2 emissions a year, Zhao said.

The UN report projected that if the global population would remain 8 billion by the year 2050 instead of a little more than 9 billion according to medium-growth scenario, "it might result in 1 billion to 2 billion fewer tons of carbon emissions".

Meanwhile, she said studies have also shown that family planning programs are more efficient in helping cut emissions, citing research by Thomas Wire of London School of Economics that states: "Each $7 spent on basic family planning would reduce CO2 emissions by more than one ton" whereas it would cost $13 for reduced deforestation, $24 to use wind technology, $51 for solar power, $93 for introducing hybrid cars and $131 electric vehicles.

She admitted that China's population program is not without consequences, as the country is entering the aging society fast and facing the problem of gender imbalance.

"I'm not saying that what we have done is 100 percent right, but I'm sure we are going in the right direction and now 1.3 billion people have benefited," she said.

She said some 85 percent of the Chinese women in reproductive age use contraceptives, the highest rate in the world. This has been achieved largely through education and improvement of people's lives, she said.

This holistic approach that integrates policy on population and development, a strategy promoting sustainable development of population, resources and environment should serve as a model for integrating population programs into the framework of climate change adaptation, she said.


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I don't often agree with China, but I think they're absolutely right on this one.

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Sun Dec 13, 2009 12:28 am
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They definitely have a point.
Getting the rest of the world to agree to it will be the problem. You'd need all the major religious leaders on board for a start and I suspect that might be an even harder sell than greenhouse gases to the Americans.

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Sun Dec 13, 2009 8:17 am
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ProfessorF wrote:
I don't often agree with China, but I think they're absolutely right on this one.
+1

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+1

It is one of those bloody damned obvious facts, which seems to get ignored.

Not just climate change, but we are, as a race, overpopulated already and destroying the planet around us faster than it can regenerate itself.

That said, Germany is in crisis, because Germans are dying out! They have had negative growth for nearly a decade and are actually promoting people having children at the moment - the population in Germany has been growing, but that is generally through imigrants moving into the country, the "native" population base is actually shrinking.

That said, getting rid of countries and national boundaries will sort out the protectionism in this respect, the population needs to be controlled, but all the time countries have to cope with their national economic problems and localised aging communities, there won't be a consensus on birth control.

At least China is talking about birth control. Many scientists are talking about killing off parts of the population, in order to reduce numbers! Didn't Prince Phillip say something about wanting to be reincarnated as a virus and coming back and wiping out a large swathe of humanity?

Or was he talking about the paparazzi? :lol:

How long until they start a "Logan's Run" type programme? Take all the old people out the back and give them "2 to the head," as Adam Curry puts it...

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Sun Dec 13, 2009 9:33 am
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This is a little too heavy for a Sunday ,I will come back to it later. :) :) :) ;)

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Sun Dec 13, 2009 9:39 am
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It's education. That Attenborough Horizon show demonstrated that well-educated people naturally have smaller families.

The hold-up to a good general level of education - especially for women - in many parts of the world, as far as I can see it, is adherence to a religion of some kind.

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Sun Dec 13, 2009 9:44 am
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HeatherKay wrote:
It's education. That Attenborough Horizon show demonstrated that well-educated people naturally have smaller families.


+1 - well worth a watch. It’ll be on iPlayer for the next few days.

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