President Clinton said something at his press conference that has stuck with me, and I want to emphasize it by bringing it out into its own post.  On population, he said,

There is only one thing we can do to slow population growth - within the context of preserving our freedoms.  This is to make sure girls are educated and women have jobs.  This is proven to slow population growth and lwoer the strains on natural resources.  Education and economic empowerment of women.  And this helps all of the issues we care about.  Universal education and equal access to the workplace for women is at the center of a more just and equal world.

I have not been hearing very much about population growth in the ongoing climate-change discussions. I don't mean just at CGI, but in general. And it is the root cause. But beyond that, I want to suggest a different angle on population growth -- if climate change means drought, famine, displacement, etc. these effects will harm fewer people if there are fewer people.  If parents want to avoid having their children suffer when the worst effects of global warming arrive they can avoid this by having fewer children.  A person not born today will not be 30 or 40 years old when the worst effects really hit, will not starve in a famine, will not be a refugee from flooded areas and will not be thirsty from drought.