Stop blaming the poor. It's the wally yachters who are burning the planet

[sabelmouse]

Stop blaming the poor. It's the wally yachters who are burning the planet

Population growth is not a problem - it's among those who consume the least. So why isn't anyone targeting the very rich?

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* George Monbiot
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o George Monbiot
o guardian.co.uk, Monday 28 September 2009 21.00 BST
o Article history

It's no coincidence that most of those who are obsessed with population growth are post-reproductive wealthy white men: it's about the only environmental issue for which they can't be blamed. The brilliant Earth systems scientist James Lovelock, for instance, claimed last month that "those who fail to see that population growth and climate change are two sides of the same coin are either ignorant or hiding from the truth. These two huge environmental problems are inseparable and to discuss one while ignoring the other is irrational." But it's Lovelock who is being ignorant and irrational.

A paper published yesterday in the journal Environment and Urbanization shows that the places where population has been growing fastest are those in which carbon dioxide has been growing most slowly, and vice versa. Between 1980 and 2005, for instance, sub-Saharan Africa produced 18.5% of the world's population growth and just 2.4% of the growth in CO2. North America turned out only 4% of the extra people, but 14% of the extra emissions. Sixty-three percent of the world's population growth happened in places with very low emissions.

Even this does not capture it. The paper points out that about one sixth of the world's population is so poor that it produces no significant emissions at all. This is also the group whose growth rate is likely to be highest. Households in India earning less than 3,000 rupees (£40) a month use a fifth of the electricity per head and one seventh of the transport fuel of households earning 30,000 rupees or more. Street sleepers use almost nothing. Those who live by processing waste (a large part of the urban underclass) often save more greenhouse gases than they produce.

Many of the emissions for which poorer countries are blamed should in fairness belong to the developed nations. Gas flaring by companies exporting oil from Nigeria, for instance, has produced more greenhouse gases than all other sources in sub-Saharan Africa put together. Even deforestation in poor countries is driven mostly by commercial operations delivering timber, meat and animal feed to rich consumers. The rural poor do far less harm.

The paper's author, David Satterthwaite, points out that the old formula taught to students of development – that total impact equals population times affluence times technology (I = PAT) – is wrong. Total impact should be measured as I = CAT: consumers times affluence times technology. Many of the world's people use so little that they wouldn't figure in this equation. They are the ones who have most children.

While there's a weak correlation between global warming and population growth, there's a strong correlation between global warming and wealth. I've been taking a look at a few super-yachts, as I'll need somewhere to entertain Labour ministers in the style to which they are accustomed. First I went through the plans for Royal Falcon Fleet's RFF135, but when I discovered that it burns only 750 litres of fuel per hour I realised that it wasn't going to impress Lord Mandelson. I might raise half an eyebrow in Brighton with the Overmarine Mangusta 105, which sucks up 850 litres per hour. But the raft that's really caught my eye is made by Wally Yachts in Monaco. The WallyPower 118 (which gives total wallies a sensation of power) consumes 3,400 litres per hour when travelling at 60 knots. That's nearly a litre per second. Another way of putting it is 31 litres per kilometre.

Of course, to make a real splash I'll have to shell out on teak and mahogany fittings, carry a few jetskis and a mini-submarine, ferry my guests to the marina by private plane and helicopter, offer them bluefin tuna sushi and beluga caviar, and drive the beast so fast that I mash up half the marine life of the Mediterranean. As the owner of one of these yachts I'll do more damage to the biosphere in 10 minutes than most Africans inflict in a lifetime. Now we're burning, baby.

Someone I know who hangs out with the very rich tells me that in the banker belt of the lower Thames valley there are people who heat their outdoor swimming pools to bath temperature, all round the year. They like to lie in the pool on winter nights, looking up at the stars. The fuel costs them £3,000 a month. One hundred thousand people living like these bankers would knacker our life support systems faster than 10 billion people living like the African peasantry. But at least the super wealthy have the good manners not to breed very much, so the rich old men who bang on about human reproduction leave them alone.

In May the Sunday Times carried an article headlined "Billionaire club in bid to curb overpopulation". It revealed that "some of America's leading billionaires have met secretly" to decide which good cause they should support. "A consensus emerged that they would back a strategy in which population growth would be tackled as a potentially disastrous environmental, social and industrial threat." The ultra-rich, in other words, have decided that it's the very poor who are trashing the planet. You grope for a metaphor, but it's impossible to satirise.

James Lovelock, like Sir David Attenborough and Jonathan Porritt, is a patron of the Optimum Population Trust. It is one of dozens of campaigns and charities whose sole purpose is to discourage people from breeding in the name of saving the biosphere. But I haven't been able to find any campaign whose sole purpose is to address the impacts of the very rich.

The obsessives could argue that the people breeding rapidly today might one day become richer. But as the super wealthy grab an ever greater share and resources begin to run dry, this, for most of the very poor, is a diminishing prospect. There are strong social reasons for helping people to manage their reproduction, but weak environmental reasons – except among wealthier populations.

The Optimum Population Trust glosses over the fact that the world is going through demographic transition: population growth rates are slowing down almost everywhere and the number of people is likely, according to a paper in Nature, to peak this century, probably at about 10 billion. Most of the growth will take place among those who consume almost nothing.

But no one anticipates a consumption transition. People breed less as they become richer, but they don't consume less – they consume more. As the habits of the super-rich show, there are no limits to human extravagance. Consumption can be expected to rise with economic growth until the biosphere hits the buffers. Anyone who understands this and still considers that population, not consumption, is the big issue is, in Lovelock's words, "hiding from the truth". It is the worst kind of paternalism, blaming the poor for the excesses of the rich.

So where are the movements protesting about the stinking rich destroying our living systems? Where is the direct action against super-yachts and private jets? Where's Class War when you need it?

It's time we had the guts to name the problem. It's not sex; it's money. It's not the poor; it's the rich.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2009/sep/28/popul...

[President Clive-φ-Davidson]

*Bumps valuable lesson*

[sabelmouse]

and yet people follow paris hiltons exploits while raging against well fare mothers. the world is scewed? is that the word?

[President Clive-φ-Davidson]

Yes. Yes it is.

[XOX]

It is very unfair. But you are talking about a very unpopular topic here.

So, it is not about world population grow that lead to energy consumption. The poorer consumers do not use energy sources the same way as the rich.

Further more, In the article, Population and Energy Consumption, it said USA consumes far more energy than any other country, more than China and Russia put together. 5 % percent of world's population consumes 23% of world energy.

[sabelmouse]

i know, but the citizens seem to be in denial. actually the whole world knows, but the citizens of the USA.
thanks for the link though.

[XOX]

Yes, they are. It is a very uncomfortable thought, and it is understandable that many would choose denial.

The poor didn't consume less energy by choice. Many people in the third world country do not have much electrical appliances, or have cars, or to have heaters or air-conditioning.

Most eco friendly persons in the first world deal with this issue by inventing new technology that do less damage to the environment without giving up much comfort in normal everyday life for most people.

And yes, population growth is not directly related to energy consumption. But a sudden population in high energy consumption areas might make things worst. And yes, it is the rich that probably consume more energy than the poor.

What you hope is the relatively high energy consuming rich people to be more responsible. Would they give up traveling to exotic places? Probably not. Could the rich live with public transports? Not very likely.

Now you know while I understand your concern, people are far from wanting to acknowledge the issue.

[sabelmouse]

not just the very rich. the avarage or even poor/ish person in the us or europe will probably consume more that a poor indian or african.

[XOX]

Sad but true. It is about exposure really.

To get it to a very personal level, you have to know real people in comparatively poorer countries. Rich and poor is relative, like you said. So, comparatively average people in the first world countries would consume much more energy than the average people in the third world countries.

The way I see it is, being responsible and do what you can, is the best way to deal before one could take up more responsibility.

But if people really get to know and don't want the guilt that comes with being the top energy consumers, they could help things by urging the big companies to produce energy saving products.

[sabelmouse]

yes they could but i still think we have to use and consume and waste less.

[BSmith]

It's true that population growth is happening mostly in the poor countries of the world. However, it is still an important issue because many of those countries are developing rapidly. The reason population growth can not be ignored is that the planet can not support even the current population if everyone was at a US or European standard of living. As the population grows, a larger proportion of the population will have to remain poor due to the limited nature of our resources.

You can't just ignore half of the problem. While it makes you feel better to go after the rich and their energy intensive lives, the increase in the energy intensity of the lives of the poor competes for the same resources. You can't separate the two and have a complete energy picture. For better or worse, we are a planet of the very rich and the very poor for at least the next 50 years.

[sabelmouse]

and you can't ignore that you use as much in a day as those poor people in a month.

[BSmith]

Exactly. You must have both parts of the issue.