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Environmental Degradation: Population vs Overconsumption
Wealthy nations blame environmental degradation on the population growth in the world’s poorest countries.
A newsletter advocating for sustainable population growth made its way to my inbox. It’s not unusual for an environmentalist and economist to receive unsolicited emails from organizations focused on environmental issues, but controlling reproduction is not a campaign I support, and let’s be honest, this policy targets the world’s poorest countries.
The wealthiest 10% are responsible for over 50% of the world’s carbon emissions. Material production, overconsumption, purchasing luxury goods, exhausting natural resources, emitting waste and carbon, and the endless mission for economic growth accelerates climate change, yet wealthy nations have the audacity to point their manicured fingers at the economically underdeveloped nations.
Australia, the UK, the US, Italy, Spain, and most of Europe rely on immigration to maintain a large labor market to contribute to a steady rise in GDP. In fact, advertisement campaigns from the Australian government offered financial incentives for reproduction. Economically developed countries rely on a large labor market to uphold capitalism’s forever expanding growth model; no people, no…
