For decades, a kind of pseudo-green blinder has been shockingly persistent in its emphasis on the small ecological footprint of the poor. Such objections are motivated more by anger at the rich than solidarity with the poor. The latter is the main motivation for supporting contraception.
– Is the misery of hundreds of millions of people good news for the pseudo-greens, since it does not overburden the Earth?[19]
– The poor are not at all proud of their small ecological footprint, they are doing their utmost to achieve a higher standard of living.
– It is the billions of poor people who are trying to climb the economic ladder that are increasing the environmental burden on humanity. Who can blame them? Certainly not the pseudo-greens who have not helped the hundreds of millions of people lacking contraception to prevent the daily birth of some 100,000 children unwanted by their parents.[28]
Incidentally, accidental deaths are by no means unique to countries with a small footprint. The average per capita carbon footprint (t/person/year) of poorer (non-OECD) countries in 2018 is not much lower (4.98) than that of Hungary (6.16), which is an OECD country.[29][30][31]
To claim that the Earth could support even more people than it does today is to ignore the complexity of the biosphere, utterly unscientific, presumptuous irresponsibility, and would condemn future generations to misery. Society is not a pig farm, it’s not only food that we need enough of. But the Earth could not even feed so many people without fossil energy. More than 80% of humanity lives in countries with low carrying capacities, where sustainability can only be achieved by sinking into misery – or by significant population decline.
References:
[19] https://bocs.eu/ki-szeretne-vilagnyomorba-sullyedni/ (Who would like to plunge into deep poverty?)
[28] https://www.guttmacher.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/abortion-worldwide.pdf
[29] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.GHGT.KT.CE?locations=OE-1W
[30] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL?locations=OE-1W
[31] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.GHGT.KT.CE?locations=HU-1W
Sources: BOCS Foundatiom
