Nugent, C. (2019, July 11). Climate Change-Vulnerable Countries Face Population Booms. Retrieved from https://time.com/5621885/climate-change-population-growth/.

 

The impacts of climate change usually hit less developed regions of the world harder than wealthier regions. A consequence of that is that those countries experiencing the most rapid population growth will also be on the front lines of climate change. According to the Climate Vulnerability Index, 9 out of 10 of the most environmentally vulnerable countries are in sub-saharan Africa, a region in which the population is expected to double by 2050. Although these countries feel the effects of climate change, they aren’t the root of the problem. As the average person living in sub-Saharan Africa produces around 0.8 metric tons of CO2 while the average American produces a whopping 16.5 metric tons.

I think it’s a sad reality that the countries that are already vulnerable are the ones experiencing the effects of climate change. There is already a problem, but as the population increases it’s only going to get worse. As disease, famine, and displacement will be a result of the impacts of climate change. In terms of sub-saharan Africa, western countries are the ones who created many of the pre-existing conflict in the region and now they will reap the downsides that these same western countries created by their environmental impact. However, these developing countries are inclined to speed economic growth at the cost of safe environmental practices. Which is contradictory to their situation, but they didn’t create those problems. For overpopulation, it should be combated in these developing countries through increased education and family planning, and of course the rest of the world should heavily dampen their impact.