Consider the following statistics: at the beginning of the 20th century, the world population was less than two billion, but at the dawn of the 21st century, there were more than six billion people on earth.

According to the US Census Bureau’s population clock, the world’s population is now 6,527,525,419. Every 14 years, one billion people are added to the planet. At this rate, the total number of people in the world will be a little more than 9.1 billion in 50 years.

Although the population growth rate has slowed, the world’s population is growing. The US population is projected to reach 300 million by October. According to a report by the Washington-based group Population Connection, over half of the world’s population will live in cities by 2007.

Emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming have also increased significantly since the 20th century. There are greater concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), one of the chief contributors to global warming, in the atmosphere as a result of continued burning of fossil fuels.

Jay Gulledge, senior research fellow for Science and Impacts at the Pew Centre on Global Climate Change, says, “There has been a 35 per cent increase in the concentration of atmospheric CO2, up from 280 ppm (parts per million) pre-industrial times to a current 380 ppm.” As the population increases, particularly in urban areas, the demand for more energy requires power plants that already emit huge volumes of greenhouse gases to produce even more. And as people in lesser developed countries gain access to electricity, more power plants that emit greenhouse gasses are built. Population growth goes hand-in-hand with deforestation and clearing of land to make way for urban sprawl. While living forests act as “carbon sinks”, absorbing greenhouse gases, dead and decaying trees emit carbon into the atmosphere.

“Population growth and global warming are intertwined,” Janet Larsen, director of research at the Earth Policy Institute, told IPS. “A growing population means a growing use of energy.” The US currently has five per cent of the world’s population, but produces 25 per cent of the world’s global warming pollution, according to a report by the US-based environmental group Sierra Club. Together, the most industrialised nations consume 60 per cent of the world’s fossil fuels.

The Bush administration has not offered any indication that it will accept the terms of the Kyoto Protocol, which has been ratified by 163 nations, because it believes that the treaty to reduce CO2 emissions would put a strain on the economy, resulting in a decline in GDP.

“There is a deafening silence when it comes to the question of population growth,” John Seager, the president of Population Connection, said. “Most of the discussions about how to handle population growth are dominated by technological discussions versus basic family planning.” According to Seager, people everywhere should control basic decision-making about when and whether to have children.

Others argue that undertaking adaptive and preventive policies simultaneously will best alleviate the effects of global warming. “Most of the world’s population growth will occur in underdeveloped countries. Therefore, they have to develop in a manner that is sustainable,” said Larsen. — IPS