Climate change

Climate change is a hot topic, so real that even Donald Trump acknowledges it. This necessitates finding real solutions.
But are our current efforts truly helping the environment, or are we heading in the wrong direction? This article presents some potentially uncomfortable data about climate change.

Earth has limited resources, encompassing not just consumables like minerals and water, but also the planet’s capacity to absorb the impact of human activity. With a smaller population, the impact of individual actions is less significant. However, our current population and consumption levels are exceeding these planetary boundaries.

Population growth is unsustainable. From 200 million people in year 0 to 1 billion in the 1800s, we reached 7.8 billion in 2019. We’ve quadrupled the global population in a single lifetime! This growth rate is inherently unsustainable. Even if everyone halved their resource consumption, we’d only have room for another 8 billion people before reaching the same critical point. At the current rate, this will occur in less than 100 years.

The main issue today isn’t general resource scarcity (yet), but the greenhouse effect. We’re exceeding the quota for CO2 emissions. The “carbon footprint” concept helps us compare the impact of various activities by considering all CO2 emitted throughout a product’s lifecycle. A Lund University study found that having a child (in the Western world) has a massive carbon footprint (58.2 tons of CO2 per year), followed by car ownership (2.8 tons/year) and one transatlantic flight (1.6 tons/year). Veganism saves 0.8 tons/year, and recycling, only 0.21 tons/year. This means a vegan with children can have a larger carbon footprint than a child-free meat-eater who travels frequently and doesn’t recycle. A similar graph can be found in this article.

CO2 Emission Savings

So this means that if you are vegan, recycle everything, never take a plane or car, and you have a couple of children, you are responsible for way more CO2 emission than your child-free, carnivorous neighbor who travels London-NY every month and uses a car for moving around (and he still does not recycle!).

So what about electric cars, renewable energies, wind power, etc.? Again, some of them are just greenwashing. Electric scooters, despite their green image, can have a carbon footprint comparable to cars due to their short lifespan and energy-intensive production. Electric cars’ environmental benefit depends on the electricity source. In countries relying on fossil fuels, they might be more polluting than efficient gasoline cars.

Even wind and solar power have limitations. Data suggests that the increase of wind and solar produced energy, are mostly replacing nuclear power plants which (believe or not) is also a clean energy, rather than significantly reducing fossil fuel use.

So, what’s the solution? Protesting and waiting for governments to act isn’t enough. Individual action, like cleaning up pollution, is crucial. The data suggests that addressing overpopulation and potentially investing in nuclear energy might be more effective strategies, though these are often politically incorrect (so do not mention out loud).

The article’s goal is to highlight misconceptions about climate change. Always look at the data, not just social media trends.