326 The globalvillage
Not the only global problem
Global warming is not the only global problem. There are other issues of
a global scale and we need to see global warming in their context. Four
problems of particular importance impact on the global warming issue.
The first is population growth. When I was born there were about
2000 million people in the world. At the beginning of the twenty-first
century there were 6000 million. During the lifetime of my grandchildren
it is likely to rise to at least 8000 million. Most of the growth will be in
developing countries; by 2020 they will contain over eighty per cent of
the world’s people. These new people will all make demands for food,
energy and work to generate the means of livelihood – all with associated
implications for global warming.
The second issue is that of poverty and the increasing disparity in
wealth between the developed and the developing world. The gap be-
tween the rich nations and the poor nations is becoming wider. The flow
of wealth in the world is from the poorer nations to the richer ones. In-
creasingly there are demands that more justice and equity be realised
within the world’s communities. The Prince of Wales has drawn atten-
tion to the strong links that exist between population growth, poverty
and environmental degradation (see box below).Poverty and population growth
The Prince of Wales, in addressing the World Commission on Environ-
ment and Development on 22 April 1992, spoke as follows^7 :
I do not want to add to the controversy over cause and effect with
respect to the Third World’s problems. Suffice it to say that I don’t, in all
logic, see how any society can improve its lot when population growth
regularly exceeds economic growth. The factors which will reduce pop-
ulation growth are, by now, easily identified: a standard of health care
that makes family planning viable, increased female literacy, reduced
infant mortality and access to clean water. Achieving them, of course,
is more difficult – but perhaps two simple truths need to be writ large
over the portals of every international gathering about the environment:
we will not slow the birth rate until we address poverty. And we will
not protect the environment until we address the issue of poverty and
population growth in the same breath.The third global issue is that of the consumption of resources, which
in many cases is contributing to the problem of global warming. Many of
the resources now being used cannot be replaced, yet we are using them
at an unsustainable rate. In other words, because of the rate at which we