China Says Population Control is Key to Fighting Climate Change

[kerrywins]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE5BA1ME20091211

Could they ever pull that off here in the US?
Would you need to have a president that has 1 child or less to do it?

[FreakinDJ]

1. Who the Fuck are these Ass Clowns to be talking

about fighting climate change - just the largest polluters on the planet

[kerrywins]

3. but...

by preventing people from having more than 1 child, they have reduced their pollution.

[FreakinDJ]

7. but but.....

yes but they can have 2 polluting coal fired smelting furnaces

[kerrywins]

9. yes, but

if there were twice as many people in there, there would be 4 coal furnaces.

[FreakinDJ]

11. Your right - Population Control is the real crux of the problem

we used to have programs operating in countries all over the world until Ronnie RayGuns saw and opportunity to appease the Lunny Religious Right

[Richardo]

2. Dear China: You first. Signed, Planet Earth

:eyes:

[kerrywins]

4. they already have a 1 child policy

who's next?

[Jamastiene]

12. And they have 1,321,000,000 people.

That is over a billion. They started late, incredibly late.

[pscot]

18. And no sense of irony

n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

19. China has always been a significant part of the world population

Their major population growth happened before 1850. At that point, they had a major civil war, and continued in civil wars pretty much until Mao won the last one, and that cut their population growth to very little. China is a large part of the most agriculturally productive region of the planet, so it's not surprising they've made up a large part of the population.

Sources:
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_1950_population.htm
http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/sixbillion/sixbilpart1.pdf

population in millions:

year World China    %
   0   300    60   20
1000   310   ~60   19
1750   790  ~180   23
1800   980  ~320   33
1850  1260  ~430   34

1950  2520  ~560   22
1999  5980  1253   21

So what we see is that they are at a proportion of the world pretty much close to the long term average.

[alittlelark]

5. They've been doing it for 30 or so years.

1 child limit - mandatory abortions.....

Only the very rich or very rural may have more than 1.

[FreakinDJ]

8. for a country who can't feed their poor

it was nesessary to implement the 1 child policy so the communist government could stay in control

but yes - I wish the 1 child limit would spread to quite of few more countries

[Jamastiene]

13. Exactly.

They have a population of over 1,321,000,000. They are trying to keep it there. They should be reducing it. :wow:

[Goldstein1984]

6. No way. Besides...

It isn't the population of the United States that's the problem, it's our per capita consumption and energy inefficiency.

We're 5% of the world population, but we consume 25% of the world's fossil fuels and produce 25% of it's pollution.

What's good to see, though, is someone finally identifying population, rather than secondary effects of overpopulation, as the root cause of the overall impact we have on the planet.

I saw this article in the China Daily, but didn't have time to post it.

Thanks! Great topic! I hope it starts a good discussion.

[GliderGuider]

10. Ecological footprint doesn't correlate with population.

It does correlate with per-capita GDP.

Population levels may be a factor for some kinds of ecological damage (like the damage done by agriculture) but the biggest factor is economic activity.

One sure answer to the climate problem, and ecological problems in general, is voluntary impoverishment. A global reduction of income by 50% across the board coupled with zero-growth economies should do it.

Any takers?

I thought not.

http://www.paulchefurka.ca/IPAT.html

[Jamastiene]

14. I agree that population control is very important, but

China has the largest population of any country.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population

They need to reduce that even more.

One child per family for America would be good. One child per family for China is still over a billion people.

[The2ndWheel]

15. It's like asking a corporation such as Exxon to regulate itself

The only thing that can regulate humanity is something other than humanity. It won't be our public and private institutions either, as both require more people doing more things. How else are you going to have a job without more people buying stuff? How else is government going to function without more tax dollars?

[wuvuj]

20. The biosphere will regulate humans...

...humans are like a mouse caught in a trap they can't get away from...in fact they live in/on the trap. They WILL get the message...eventually.

[blindpig]

16. Proof that they are no longer socialists. n/t

[Double T]

17. So true. No wonder China will soon rule the world.

Can you imagine what Americans would do if there were laws allowing ONLY 1 child per couple?