Stop blaming overpopulation for climate change—it’s deeply problematic - VOGUE India

Stop blaming overpopulation for climate change-it’s deeply problematic | Vogue India

From Sir David Attenborough to Prince William, many high-profile voices have highlighted overpopulation as a major issue contributing to the climate crisis. Last year, the world’s population reached a record eight billion—with the United Nations projecting that the figure could reach 9.7 billion by 2050 (although other estimates suggest the population could peak at 8.8 billion).

But is population growth really to blame for the ecological disaster we’re facing? Consider the fact that the carbon footprint of the world’s richest one per cent is nearly double that of the poorest 50 per cent. Or that the wealthiest 10 per cent contributes almost half of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. It’s clear that it’s not the amount of people on this planet that’s the problem, but our current rates of consumption—which those in the Global North are overwhelmingly responsible for.

“It is simply wrong, harmful and a dangerous distraction to blame climate change on ‘overpopulation’,” Dr Lisa Tilley, senior lecturer in development studies at SOAS, tells Vogue. “There are vast differences between particular communities and societies in terms of the greenhouse gas emissions they are responsible for producing and therefore their contribution to climate change. Those communities which have high fertility rates have a negligible impact on climate change.”

One of the main problems with the overpopulation myth is that the focus is often on countries on the Global South. “Linking overpopulation with climate change can contribute to discrimination and racism by placing the onus of action on countries where population is growing (primarily poorer non-white countries) but who are not big contributors to climate change,” Dr Shahzeen Attari, associate professor at Indiana University’s school of public and environmental affairs, explains.

That’s why promoting birth control and girls’ education in the Global South as a tool to tackle climate change is so problematic. While the empowerment of girls and women to make their own decisions is of course important, it needs to be their own choice—not an interventionist strategy designed to limit population growth. “The problem is not the measures [like access to family planning], but when the choices are constricted by a society that doesn’t allow you to grow,” Dr Rachel Sánchez-Rivera, an affiliate lecturer in reproductive studies at the University of Cambridge, says. “Then do you have a choice at all?”