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03/14/2009: "Climate Change Likely To Reduce Global Population to a Billion"
Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, said that if the buildup of greenhouse gases and its consequences pushed global temperatures 9 degrees Fahrenheit higher than today - well below the upper temperature range that scientists project could occur from global warming - Earth’s population would be devastated. [UPDATED, 6:10 p.m: The preceding line was adjusted to reflect that Dr. Schellnhuber was not describing a worst-case warming projection. h/t to Joe Romm.]
"In a very cynical way, it’s a triumph for science because at last we have stabilized something - namely the estimates for the carrying capacity of the planet, namely below 1 billion people," said Dr. Schellnhuber, who has advised German Chancellor Angela Merkel on climate policy and is a visiting professor at Oxford.
[ This process will be painful and cruel. Humans have always had the alternative of managing this in a sensible and controlled way. But humans can be relied on to make the most idiotic decisions as history proves. Hopefully we will be lucky and the people remaining will actually learn something from this experience rather than go ahead and repeat it. ]
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/13/scientist-warming-could-cut-population-to-1-billion/