The US has had a negative replacement birth rate since 1971. Most of the developed nations, especially those with higher population density have negative replacement birth rates. The nations with higher energy consumption are also declining in population, while the nations with lower energy consumption are increasing their consumption and have relatively rapid population growth.
I wouldn't be surprised if governments put some sort of incentive/disincentive on having children. Maybe there are economic incentives for the first 2 children, and none after that.
The US birth rate is below 1.8 per woman, with the replacement rate being 2.1. It's the lowest it's been in 32 years.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sendler
the IPCC (2018) has for the first time published a scenario for reducing emissions in line with the Paris Agreement that does not rely on speculative negative emissions technologies. Developed by Grubler et al. (2018) and known as Low Energy Demand (LED), the scenario works by reducing global energy consumption by 40% by 2050...
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This is consistent with what you've been saying, that "clean" energy isn't even covering the increase in demand, so that overall emissions due to energy generation are still increasing.
I like to take a "don't count your chickens before they hatch" approach. It seems the only reasonable way to plan for the future.
My wife is more diligent to clean up in the kitchen, but I'm more diligent to not make a mess in the first place. I'm of the mind that it's easier to not make the mess in the first place than to deal with the relative carelessness later. It seems to me a better idea to not emit CO2 in the first place than to try to capture it later after it's dispersed into the atmosphere.