Read the article below and answer the three questions detailed below. Please save your work as a PDF with your student name and assignment # in the space provided below.
Roberts, D. (November 29, 2018). I’m an environmental journalist, but I never write about overpopulation. Here’s why. Since you asked (many times). Vox News.
Accessible at: https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/9/26/16356524/the-population-question

Student Name:

Source Citation:

Roberts, D. (November 29, 2018). I’m an environmental journalist, but I never write about overpopulation. Here’s why. Since you asked (many times). Vox News.
Accessible at: https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/9/26/16356524/the-population-question

I. CREW (Out of 12)

Please make sure to identify a minimum of three claims (Primary/secondary and one other) with three reasons tied to the claims and three pieces of evidence to back up the claims in the article. Finally, three judgements on the warrant of each of the claims given the reasons and evidence provided along with reference to course concepts. 12 pnts

Claims (1x3pnts) Reasons (1x3pnts) Evidence (1x3pnts) Claim warranted given course concepts covered to date in original and new lectures? Answer with reference to 4 Forces &/Or 7 Cheaps models (1×3)
Primary Claim (1)

Population growth cannot be addressed through population control projects without producing unacceptable political & moral outcomes. This is because educating women & redistributing wealth produce declines in population & positive political and moral outcomes. Study by the Drawdown Project calculated that the “female empowerment package” (women with the ability to plan their families and educate their girls) has most potential to cut greenhouse gasses out of all solutions they examined (120 gigatons of GHGs by 2050).
Yes. According to 4 Forces model delivered by Dr. Catto, educating women and girls and empowering them socially and economically leads to an ability for women to plan their families and decrease fertility and therefore population.

Yes. According to 7 Cheaps model delivered by Dr. Bavington, cheap lives and care have been, and continue to be actively produced through capitalism. Demographic change can be best addressed, not through population control efforts, but by creating security (economic, physical, etc.) for those who have been made the most vulnerable by capitalism—the poor, indigenous people, people of colour, women, children, and those over 65 years of age (the so-called “dependents”).

Secondary Claim (1)

Environmental journalists should never write about over-population.

The number of humans on the planet is a major factor determining environmental impact.

Eugenics, xenophobia, racism & other forms of discrimination, have historically accompanied concern over the number of humans.

Empowering women and girls is the most effective climate emergency strategy.

Some humans contribute to the climate emergency much more than others.

Many downsides to discussing population control if you want to address the climate emergency.

Better ways to discuss addressing environmental impacts.

Exponential population growth on a finite planet cannot occur without major environmental impacts. (Impact=PxAxT)

When over-population is discussed historically it is only members of specific populations (vulnerable and minorities) that are deemed as in need to reduction not all.

Family planning not possible if women are oppressed.

This is because wealth is highly concentrated.

Downsides include furthering the oppression of women and minorities and blaming all equally for climate change when rich contribute much more to the problem. No need to discuss over-population if you advocate women’s empowerment and decreasing concentration in wealth.

Human population growth has expanded exponentially since the 20th century.

Eugenic projects throughout the US that targeted those deemed “feeble minded” and other traits deemed less desirable.

Drawdown Project (Female empowerment package and CO2 reduction)

Top 10% most wealthy produce 49% of GHG emissions.

Population programs have led to various monstrous interventions that made problems worse. Eg. Eugenics in the US and Canada YES in both 4 Forces and 7 Cheaps.

4 Forces: Demographics is global force influencing all other forces.
7 Cheaps: Great acceleration in 1950s associated with many environmental declines.

Supported by both 4 Forces and 7 Cheaps. But the creation of hierarchies and the cheapening of some lives and work over others makes the claim warranted based on course content.

Yes this claim was supported by arguments in 4 and 7 (See above)

Yes this claim was supported by arguments in 4 and 7 (See above)

Yes this claim was supported by arguments in 4 and 7 (See above)

Other claim(s) you wish to highlight (1)

II. Geographies of Global Change (Places, People, Events) (0.5pnts x2 = 1 pnt total)

Please list two key locations, two events/dates and two key people/actors discussed in the article.

List 2 Key Locations List 2 Key Events/Dates List 2 Key people or actors
India, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan, Ethiopia, the United Republic of Tanzania, the United States of America, Uganda, and Indonesia. Eugenic Sterilization Map (1935), 2050 for GG targets, Sept. 2017 Kolbert Interview, 2004 Sierra Club Immigration-Environment Debate, 1970s-1980s population control projects, Drawdown Project (2016).

United Nations, Bill Gates, Sierra Club, Paul Hawkin, Drawdown Project, Oxfam, Kevin Anderson, Elizabeth Kolbert

III. What you learned (0.5 pnt x 2 = 1pnt total)

What are two things that you have learned in the lectures and additional content from the first two weeks of the course? (Please use concrete examples and note if from the original content delivered by Dr. Catto or the new content by Dr. Bavington. Min. 150 words.

FINAL GRADE: Secton I ( /12), Section II ( /1), Section III ( /1) = /14 marks