Research Exersice: Linking Population between Climate Change

Leon Kolankiewicz, an environmental planner, discusses how population growth and uncontrollable immigration have been a potential threat to climate change in the video “The Impact of Immigration Policy on the Environment”. In the 60s, and all throughout the 70s, the population of the United States grew by approximately 2 ½ million people a year. This was a huge concern for those who wanted to protect the environment. While this was taking place in the US, the population growth around the world was a staggering 90 million people a year. There is an equation that can be used to calculate the impact of a growing population on the environment. It’s called I=PAT, which is multiplying the population by the affluence and by the technology. If you had to put the increase of the population in the US in these terms, then America has had a much greater impact because of the much higher levels of per capita consumption and the technology. “The average American would be consuming 10 to 100 times to any developing country” said Kolankiewicz. “Since we have added another 100 million Americans, 2/3 of which is driven by immigration” this has an incredible impact on the amount of energy being consumed. A connection that can be made between Kolankiewicz’s ideas and Mark Maslin’s ideas is that both believe that an increase in oil imports and greenhouse gases would only worsen the situation we find ourselves in. In Kolankiewicz’s case these increases are due to the growth of populations, while Maslin believes that it is due to careless actions taken by humans.
In my opinion, the connections between population growth and global warming can be closely tied. The reasons behind this are that with more people living in the country, the more resources are being used. “Less space, less country side, and cities never stop growing,” said Kolankiewicz. The amount of greenhouse gases being released into the air can only be increased with more people creating them.