Various forms of contraceptive which should be made available to all women, especially those living in developoing and vulnerable countries.
According to the IIED Times, Environment and Urbanization published research disproved the belief that population growth leads to increases in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In reality, developing countries have growing populations, while developed countries have growing GHG emissions. The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) states that low income nations had 52.1% of the world’s population growth and only accounted for 12.8% of GHG emissions increase, while high income nations had 7% of the world’s population, but have increased GHG emissions by 29%. As Bettina mentioned, it is consumption that is one of the main drivers of climate change, not population. This being said, it is unfortunate that developing countries, those who have contributed the least to the global crisis we currently find ourselves facing, are those who are most vulnerable to climate change and are already beginning to feel the impacts of climate change.
A blog i read in the New York Times linked me to a fascinating tool which portrays population, agricultural production, temperatures, and vulnerability to climate change on geographic maps. The increase in population increase the demand for food. Unfortunately, countries with increasingly growing populations are those who already being effected by the changing climate, suffering from drought, soil erosion, degragation, and floods, destroying food supplies, and causing severe famine. The Ethiopian delegate I had lunch with stressed that women are in charge of feeding and maintaining their families, putting massive amounts of stress on them, and in some cases preventing them for being able to attend school.
Some of you are probably wondering why populations are growing in vulnerable areas. The answer is a simple one. There is a lack of education, sexual reproductive health programs and access to contraception in these areas. According to an informational sheet given to me by the “Population and Climate Change” booth next to ours, “more than 200 million women who want to control their pregnancies lack access to contraception.” Education is essential to helping these women realize their sexual reproductive rights. The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) states “in many regions, women still have less decision-making power than men… [and] struggle to access education and information, and reproductive health care.” Some of these women are forced to have children, and do not have much of a choice because they lack independence. Other women begin having children at young ages because of the lack of sexual education. Another issue brought to my attention while having lunch with an Ethiopian delegate was the issue of high infant mortality rates. Families have multiple children because they expect many of them to die by the age of 5, but with the establishment and improvements in health programs, this problem could be put to an end.
The fact that population is not directly connected to GHG emissions does not mean we can just ignore the population growth. One of the main barriers, other than funding, are conflicts with social, cultural, and religious beliefs, causing hesitancy in many people, leading them to believe that implementing sexual education would not be the answer. I feel every woman has the right to access this information and be given the right to choice whether or not they use contraceptives because it is a basic human right! We must help women in developing countries by providing the proper education and health systems. We have entered a new era, where we are beginning to shift away from the idea of “population control” and are moving into a new phase, where we are now focusing on “reproductive justice.” This is a serious issue which has yet to be addressed by heads of state (with the exception of China’s faulty one-child policy), and it does not seem to a point on anyone’s agenda. There is the need for this dialog, for it will raise awareness, and get more people involved with this new movement. Making contraception, education, and reproductive rights accessible in areas which need it most decreases the amount of people in the world’s most vulnerable countries, make mitigation and adaptation to climate change more efficient, and overall improve the lives of all people around the world.
Tags: adaptation, climate change, developing countries, population growth
