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The climate-changed world in 2050
It’s not “just another issue”
Capitalism will work, they said. Watch. Neoliberalism is the way. And they were right — the rising tide did lift all boats. But, two things happened.
One, the rising tide lifted some boats way higher than others. That’s okay, they said. You have to accept that. Laissez-faire: let the titans of industry do their thing, and you’ll get jobs, and growth. Again, they were right. Growth happened.
“According to UN projections, sub-Saharan Africa’s population will nearly double to more than 2 billion by mid-century. The region is growing three times faster than the global average and, by 2070, it will become the most populous place globally, surpassing Asia.”
Global capitalism has driven population growth in the developing world.
The graphs of industrialization and population growth are in lock step with one another.
But while all of this was happening, we altered the environment of our home planet, and are actively destroying our biosphere in ways that could make it soon uninhabitable to us.