Climate change is a pressing and overwhelming issue for the modern world to deal with. The upcoming Copenhagen summit is marred months before it happens in arguments and standoffs about how to preserve the earth without destroying the economy and the way we make our living. All the while, the population of the world grows larger and larger. One of the biggest reasons that climate change is such an issue is, quite simply, that there are a lot of people.

More people require more resources, and more resources requires more energy. That’s where we’re at. 6 Billion + and growing rapidly.

A recent report for the Optimum Population Trust from Thomas Wire at the London School of Economics calculated that for every $7 spent on family planning in the world carbon dioxide emissions will go down by 1 ton between 2010 and 2050.

I don’t even want to start thinking about how he calculated that, but it brings up two interesting ideas: 1. “Optimum Population” as a concept. 2. Family Planning is an effective way to reduce carbon emissions and fight climate change.

The idea of a carrying capacity for the Earth is relatively new- sure, we think of islands or buildings or areas as only big enough for a certain number of people, but the earth as a whole? New concept.
And family planning is an industrialized nation concept- for the most part (Is that true? I will have to question my own assumption on that. Perhaps that’s not true at all, but I will proceed from the premise that it is true) having a big family is a necessity if you are working the land- or, according to a recent New Scientist article, it’s the result of not having contraceptives.   

The Consortium for Integration of Population, Health and Environment (CIPHE) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is finding success with their program that combines environmentally friendly farming practices with family planning.

"This is an approach that can balance population with the environment," says Negash Teklu of CIPHE.

The innovative project in Ethiopia is one of only a handful around the world, though many countries are facing the kind of environmental and population challenges that the program addresses.

"The Wichi project shows that the environmental benefits of better land management can be sustained long term and not eroded by increasing population size," says Leo Bryant of Marie Stopes International, a UK-based sexual and reproductive health organization.

The book Ishmael talks a lot about the impact of a growing population on the land and the environment- indeed, Quinn identifies population growth as perhaps the most challenging issue facing the planet.

Have we, as human beings, really gotten to the point where we have to monitor how many kids we have? Does that constitute victory from an evolutionary standpoint? Or defeat, seeing as that will stunt the natural human desire to reproduce. Afterall, it’s what we do.

Giving people access to contraception and teaching them to put natural fertilizers into the ground so that they can grow more food makes, rapidly growing sense.