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Originally Posted by jimjamuser
Yes. Humans are adverse to change. But, they change SLOWLY as illustrated by the example of the smog pollution of the 1930s in California. China and the US are the top polluters in the world. Therefore, I worry about their populations because it is simple - pollution increases directly with population. Therefore more CO2 production, which heats the planet.
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Good point, I would point out that the US has 1/5 the population of China while the US produces over half as much pollution.
So, the population is contributing but not exclusive. I think and can't prove that a certain level of industrial revolution results in excessive pollution - we went through the industrial process in the late 1700s and early 1800s.
China is playing catchup. And is producing less pollution than we are per person because it has less industry per capita and a lower standard of living on average. China has committed to reducing pollution and is making progress; I have no idea if they are serious and will continue,
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Most people in the US never worry about increasing population because the US has retained a mentality created by the historic frontier expansion and a mindset that "bigger is better". There is a historic Evangelical concept of "conquering the environment". I don't believe that I have ever heard the concept of population debated on TV - the subject is ignored.
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Uh, yup, agree.
And just to nitpick, China's population density is 4 times that of us, so we could, theoretically, increase our population to 1.4 billion and be at the same density as China, But we have a MUCH higher standard of living which means each person has a larger carbon footprint that each person in China - on average..., reaching the same population density would be expected to produce about as much pollution as China with a lower total population.