What role is overpopulation playing in the climate crisis?
Overpopulation is a word that creeps up in discussions about the climate crisis. While the global population is still growing, projections show it is likely to decline eventually.
If there were fewer of us, would the amount of greenhouse gasses we emit reduce? It鈥檚 a question that often creeps up in discussions about climate change.
Studies show that the global population will decline eventually and populations in many rich nations are already declining.
However, 11,000 scientists signed a paper warning of 鈥渦ntold suffering due to the climate crisis鈥 unless society transforms, including the reversal of population growth.
But an analysis by the United Nations found that affluence has a greater impact on the climate than population.
When we talk about overpopulation, what are we really saying and where does the conversation go from here?
Presenters Neal Razzell and Kate Lamble are joined by:
Nyovani Madise, head of the Malawi office of the African Institute for Development Policy.
Anu Ramaswami, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Princeton.
Arvind Ravikumar, professor in energy transition and climate policy at the University of Texas.
Producer: Darin Graham
Reporter: Rajesh Joshi
Series producer: Alex Lewis
Editor: Emma Rippon
Sound engineer: Tom Brignell
Last on
Broadcasts
- Mon 13 Dec 2021 02:32GMT大象传媒 World Service
- Mon 13 Dec 2021 09:06GMT大象传媒 World Service
- Mon 13 Dec 2021 13:32GMT大象传媒 World Service East and Southern Africa, South Asia, West and Central Africa & East Asia only
- Mon 13 Dec 2021 20:06GMT大象传媒 World Service Online, Americas and the Caribbean, UK DAB/Freeview & Europe and the Middle East only
- Mon 13 Dec 2021 21:06GMT大象传媒 World Service except Online, Americas and the Caribbean, Europe and the Middle East & UK DAB/Freeview
Featured in...
Climate change: How it is affecting lives and the fight for change—大象传媒 World Service special collections
The effects of climate change are destroying lives, environments and livelihoods
Podcast
-
The Climate Question
Why we find it so hard to save our own planet, and how we might change that.