And now my blogging has come to an end..
I hope you enjoyed reading this blog although I know have only scratched the surface with what has been discussed here. I have tried to use current information from the media to look at how population change and the global environment affects one another. There has been a large focus on UN policies throughout which I feel is important as it ensures that problems are considered from a global scale and not just on a national level.
What I have learnt from this blog:
1) Education is key - I feel that a sustainable development and population increase can only compliment each other if people are informed about the the problems and inspired to come up with solutions.
2) The problems that the earth's population imposes on the Earth are real - they cannot be ignored or put off for future generation to deal with.
3) There is no easy solution when adapting to or limiting population growth!
On one final note, let me leave you with this...
In this post, I would like to bring things closer to home and focus on London, my home city. In a report published this week by London First named ' London 2036: Driving jobs and Growth in the Capital' , it states that in early 2015, (It was 6th January to be precise!) London's population will go beyond the 1939 post war peak in population to reach 8.6 million, and will later climb to 10 million by the end of the 2030's (London First, 2015). It is said that the City's insatiable economy, attraction for new comers, falling death rates and increasing birth rates are the factors which are driving the population increase within the capital (Guardian, 2015).
This may be seen in quite a positive light. It has meant that the 'counter-urbanisation' which was experienced after the war has been turned on it's head and London is now the largest city in the EU (Washington post,2015). These factors are great from a political and economic point of view as it shows that London and therefore the UK is prospering.
However, the struggles and challenges that come with an increased population within the city cannot be avoided. The main issues focussed on by the media are housing and transport, both which are underinvested in at present. The Financial Times (2015) states that on both a national and a regional level, policy makers have failed to keep up with London's growth and therefore policy is playing catch up when it comes to population.
Let's turn to Boris to get his input:
‘It’s something that politicians can’t control, we can’t determine how many babies are going to be born in London. It’s a great tribute in a way to the city that people have such confidence in it that they are having families and they are choosing to remain in London. What people like me have got to do is try and prepare, try and make sure we have the transport and the housing infrastructure to cope. In the end I think obviously we’re going to have a debate about the ultimate size of the population of the UK.’ Boris Johnston (Time Out, 2015)
Is the first line of his statement strictly true? He is discounting the fact that estimates can be made (as shown in the report) and therefore is he maybe trying to cover his back for the fact that politicians are unprepared when it comes to this population increase within the city? Cities are important entities to focus on when considering population and sustainable policy choices, as we are now living in an increasingly urbanised world. Continued urbanisation and population growth is estimated to add 2.5 billion people to the worlds urban population by 2050, 90% of which will be located in Asia and Africa (UN Department of economic and Social Affairs, 2014). The report policy suggestions state that city planner should ensure a more balanced distribution of urban growth which is shared equally and sustainably. This means that debates around population change globally prioritise cities and their adaptation to change within their discussions.
He is however right about the fact that there needs to be a future debate surrounding the size of the UK's population as a result of these statistics. The city of London should not be left on its own to tackle these issues, and government on a national level needs to join the discussions, due to the challenges that this increase in population will bring. There needs to be plans put in place on how to accommodate this increasing number of people within the UK. However, if in reality the government is unable to do this, then population policy measures need to be implemented. This could be done through economic measures such as taxation, or through social measures such as media campaigns. This is the harsh reality that the country will have to face if it cannot provide the infrastructure needed for the expansion of the capital.
Here's just a fun thing i found today! Its an app for you iPhone or iPad called 'Overpopulation' which displays the current and future population of the world. It also shows the population of countries under different scenarios. It aims to educate people of the dangers of overpopulation, using the ratio between the Ecological Footprint and the Biocapacity of all countries in the world to calculate the population sizes.
Download it today.....It's free!!
Happy New Year!
But what will 2015 bring for both us and the environment...
To look at what this year holds, I will concentrate on the Lima Climate Change conference to analyse the policies regarding climate change and their implications for the population.
In 1994, the UN framework Convention on Climate Change was set up to reduce green house gas concentrations. The Lima conference in December 2014 was the the 20th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP) which is designed to be the governing body of the convention (COP20, 2014). The conference lasted 2 weeks setting out a new agreement on climate change.
'Nations concluded by elaborating the elements of the new agreement, scheduled to be agreed in Paris in late 2015, while also agreeing the ground rules on how all countries can submit contributions to the new agreement during the first quarter of next year.' (UNFCCC, 2014) - This statement, taken from the conference's press release, uses the word 'agree' a lot of times and is pretty long winded!! It make me question whether the conference actually achieved anything or was it all just talk about what will happen at the next conference?
From what can be seen so far, there are some very positive outcomes for the population. Pledges were made by countries to raise the Green Climate Fund, bringing the total up to 10.2 billion (UNFCCC, 2014). There was also a decision to increase the adaptation fund for small island states which face rising sea levels and extreme weather (Guardian, 2014). My favourite outcome however, was that the Lima Ministerial Declaration which states that governments must put climate change on the school curriculum. As discussed in this blog before, EDUCATION will be key to managing climate change, so i feel this decision will give people knowledge about the global environment and therefore give them power to change it.
I don't want to get too excited, as only draft decision files have been released, so overall it is difficult to say too much about the outcome of the conference as yet. It is important to bear in mind policy pledges are not sufficient to prevent the worst impact scenarios of climate change (Dimitrov, 2010). Also, as stated above, these decisions are set to be agreed in 2015, and also form the foundation to the climate action post 2020, when the new agreement is set to come into effect. This shows that we might have to wait around quite a while before these things actually start to make changes in greenhouse gas emissions...
