Since the publication of Paul Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb in 1968, great attention has been paid to the social, economic and environmental problems associated with world population growth. The environmental impact of population growth was later summarized in the equation I=PAT, representing the theory that the negative impact on the environment (I) was the product of population growth (P), affluence or per-capita consumption (A) and the technology used to produce what is consumed (T). When it comes to international discussions of the environment, Northern researchers often place the emphasis on population growth, arguing that in the developing world it outweighs other factors. In this chapter, the author argues that on the issue of climate change such logic is flawed.
