Opinion: Global warming rooted in people
Many political discussions are occurring in Paris and elsewhere regarding how to minimize climate change or global warming. The main goal is to decrease the production of carbon dioxide by using less coal, gas and oil. As we all know, humans use these energy sources in almost every aspect of our daily lives.
Humans are the problem, and global warming is but one symptom of the problem. We shall not solve the symptoms until we solve the problem that is causing the symptoms. It is as simple as that, but nobody in Paris seems to realize the real problem, and thus no discussion of controlling world population growth is occurring.
When I was born in 1929, world population was 2 billion; now there are 7.3 billion, and 10 billion are expected by 2050. Because so many people are younger than 15 today, global population will continue to increase after 2050.
An increasing population of people, each of whom uses more energy every year, leads to one conclusion: Even if 150 nations agree in Paris to take steps to limit world temperature to our goal of 2 degrees centigrade, those steps will be negated unless we take steps to stop population growth.
David Van Vleck
Cornwall