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[生活環保]每週評論:救治我們的地球

人,太多了嗎? (上)

 

Healing Our World: Weekly Comment

Too many people?

 

作者 傑奇•艾倫•朱利安諾 博士

願我們認識
每一個人的心靈,
以及我們共有的心靈。
-- 拉姆•達斯

  自從1970年代環境保護主義初露曙光以來,環境問題就常常歸咎於人口過多。許多現存的組織告誡我們,除非人口成長減緩,否則我們不可能改善逐漸惡化的環境品質。

  由於孩子最近出生,使我聯想到這樣的分析太過簡陋。和地球人數相比,人們選擇生活的方式以及消耗物品的模式,更可能是影響環境的重要因素。

  一本在1990年代極具開創性的書「人口爆炸」的作者-保羅•埃利希,是少數幾位首次將人口與環境品質下降之間做關係聯結的人。他強調,人口容量的概念應該是決定一個地區的人口是否過多的主要因素。人口容量意指,假若人數超過土地所能承受的數目,則表示人太多了。

  他的書出版幾年之後,在埃及開羅舉辦的1994 國際人口暨發展會議,埃利希藉著一場題目為「太多有錢人了」的演講,進一步修正他的分析。他說:「人類對於地球維生系統的影響,並不只是由人口總數來決定,還跟這些人如何生活有關。當這樣的因素被考慮進去,一個完全不同的畫面浮現出來:主要的人口問題出現在富有的國家,事實上是,太多有錢人了。」

  這樣的分析為人口議題的討論增加了一個關鍵性的面向。在一個地區內,每個人所消耗的資源數量,比其總人數更重要。

  在世界上任何一個大城市裡,都會有一些富人區和窮人區。就拿我居住多年的洛杉磯來說,我知道有一些人的家,佔地一萬平方英呎。兩個人住在比佛利山這種豪宅裡,他們所消耗的資源--能源,燃料及食物等,是居住在窮人區十個街區內的人所使用的好多、好多倍。

  如果以簡單的人口分析法來看,窮人區將會歸類為人口過多,而比佛利山的則不會。

  這份在1994年埃利希演講中所使用的分析,至今仍然適用。1990年代初期,每一個美國人平均使用的能源,是日本人的兩倍,超過西班牙人的三倍。直到今天,數字更高,但是人口的比例則相仿。

  相較於印度,美國人鐵的用量是印度人的50倍,能源是56倍,人造橡膠及新聞用紙是170倍,馬達燃料是250倍,塑膠則超過300倍。

  美國人口佔世界人口5不到,但使用的資源及製造的垃圾,卻超過世界的四分之一。極少數的有錢人,造成地球三分之二以上的環境破壞。

【文章連載】
 人,太多了嗎? (上) (下)

全文與圖片詳見: http://ens-news.com/ens/may2001/2001L-05-25g.html

版權歸屬Environment News Service (ENS),環境信託基金會(鄧國光 譯,蘇崧棱、蔡麗伶 審校)

中英對照全文:http://e-info.org.tw/issue/surround/2001/issue-surround01082301.htm

By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.

May we recognize the Spirit 
in each of us, and the Spirit
in all of us.
-- Ram Dass

Since the dawn of modern environmentalism in the 1970s, population issues have often been blamed for environmental problems. Many organizations exist that tell us we cannot change our downward spiral of environmental degradation until population growth decreases. 

With the recent birth of my son, I am reminded that this analysis is much too simplistic. The way people choose to live their lives and their consumption patterns may be a much more important factor than the sheer number of people on Earth. 

Paul Ehrlich, author of the groundbreaking 1990 book "The Population Explosion," was among the first to draw the connection between population and environmental degradation. He focused on the concept of carrying capacity as the primary factor that should be used in determining whether or not an area is overpopulated. Carrying capacity means that if a population exceeds the ability of the land to sustain it, then there are too many people.

A few years after the publication of his book, at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt, Ehrlich refined the analysis in a talk entitled, "Too Many Rich People." Ehrlich said, "The impact of humanity on Earth's life support systems is not just determined by the number of people alive on the planet. It also depends on how those people behave. When this is considered, an entirely different picture emerges: the main population problem is in wealthy countries. There are, in fact, too many rich people."

This analysis adds a critical dimension to the population discussion. The amount of resources an individual consumes may be much more important than the number of people in a region.

In any major city in the world, there will be areas where affluent people settle and places where people of dramatically lesser means reside. In Los Angeles, where I lived for many years, I knew some of the people who occupied 10,000 square foot homes. Two people living in such a home in Beverly Hills were consuming resources - energy, fuel, and food - many, many times that consumed by people living in ten square blocks in a poorer part of town.

Yet by the simplistic form of population analysis still practiced by many, the poorer part of town would be considered to be overpopulated while the block in Beverly Hills would not.

The analysis used by Ehrlich in his 1994 talk is still relevant today. In the early 1990s, each person in the United States, on average, uses twice as much as energy as the average Japanese person, and more than three times as much as the average Spaniard. Those figures are much higher today, but the proportions are similar.

Compared to the average citizen of India, a citizen in the United States uses 50 times more steel, 56 times more energy, 170 times more synthetic rubber and newsprint, 250 times more motor fuel, and 300 times more plastic.

The United States, with less than five percent of the world's population, uses over a fourth of the world's resources and generates over a fourth of the world's waste. The relatively small number of rich people in the world create over two-thirds of the global environmental destruction.

http://ens-news.com/ens/may2001/2001L-05-25g.html

 
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