“Don’t panic about the birth of Baby 8 Billion,” says Danny Dorling (Comment). Panic, no, but reflect more carefully, yes. It is good that Dorling focuses on consumption as a major driver of resource depletion and carbon pollution. But he is wrong to dismiss population growth as unimportant. Average consumption per person multiplied by a bigger number of people gives you a bigger result. This is not “snake oil to the mathematically illiterate”, it is mathematics.
The uncertainty is what lies behind average consumption per person, which is where inequality comes in.
