Scientists point to greenhouse gases as being the ROOT CAUSE of GLOBAL WARMING.
I was born in 1952 when the world population was 2.635 billion people. It now stands at 7.4 billion people. Nearly triple.
Volcanoes notwithstanding, people create the majority of greenhouse gases. Overpopulation is the “root cause” of global warming. Shh! Don’t tell anybody. It will be our little secret.
There is a bright side. There is no logical reason to worry about this issue. Although we created the current problem; we are in no way prepared to (or capable of) fixing it.
I can only say what someone else said here below — “You do have a way of exposing an issue for what it is.”
The relationship between global warming and population growth is clear, but you will never hear a nation-state say that they will be limiting their population — even China limited its population for other reasons, not climate change. Every other nation-state on the face of the earth wants to increase their numbers, regardless of the consequences.
Surely this is an Emperor Has No Clothes moment, since climate change policy debates never mention the root cause in terms of population growth. The simplest way — but the most difficult by far — to shrink the carbon-footprint is to reduce the population. But good luck with that.
I know this reply to you is preaching to the choir, but for the edification of others please allow the following:
To my way of thinking, humans are not actually the top species. We suffer from the distinction of displaying the inability to successfully survive within our own environment. We don’t only endanger our own survival, but are responsible for the extinction of countless other species.
As one of the organisms inhabiting this planet, we are subject to the rules and punishments governing other cellular growths. Overpopulation solves itself in any number of ways. Too many of any type of mammal? They starve and/or their predators grow in numbers accordingly. Disease takes its toll. Balance is restored. Fish are no different. Plants become root-bound and thin out until the number dwindles to a survivable level. Other problems also occur within a codependent world of flora and usually solve themselves.
Homo Sapiens have no large predators to really worry about (other than ourselves). Small predators are the problem. To see an example of how this works, one need only look at “flu season”. This usually occurs during the cold of winter. It is not the lower temperatures that produce the flu viruses. Flu season occurs because the cold drives people to the warmth of indoors, thus closer to each other allowing for easier transmission. Yes, disease tends to mitigate overpopulation. Larger populations of hosts create larger populations of larger parasites. Parasites alone can create a problem, but that is enhanced when those parasites transmit diseases. Malaria, yellow fever, plague, etc.
Mankind also has the less than admirable ability to render his habitat useless through technology. This is a form of specialization not shared by early mankind… Neanderthals, for example. As species evolve, they sometimes become so specialized that just a small change in environment and extinction occurs.
Global warming is just one problem we have. Another is our history of refusing to avail ourselves of the use of our ultimate weapons of the time. That would, now, be the cause of the type of extinctions occurring 65 million years ago. Of course, that mass extinction is thought to have happened via natural disaster(s). I think it would be useful, educational and disastrous for us to experience the result of a large solar flare spouting out of the near side of the sun. The directed radiation would give us an idea of how truly specialized our species is. So much technology incapacitated . Solar flares happen often and have caused significant electrical problems in the past. But those were just glancing blows. If electricity were to be denied the world for a week or two, many hundreds of millions would die. Maybe, then, the remaining folks would get it. Way too many people for this planet to support.
Also, technology should be an aid, not a survival requirement.