Per Capita

I’ve been reading a lot lately about using per capita measurements for greenhouse gas emissions, as well as economic indicators, and how those should play out in terms of obligations (or lack thereof) for a new agreement on climate change. Western technological innovations and money have done wonders in the last decades of reducing mortality rates amongst developing world populations, especially children.

This causes problems in a number of ways. First we are creating an ever increasing burden on the infrastructure of these developing countries. Many fewer children are dying, but a reduction in birth rates of a magnitude similar to the reduction in infant mortality has yet to materialize. We spend a small amount of money to feel good about saving babies, but we provide no new money to support primary, secondary, or tertiary education in these countries. We spend little or no money to provide them with the medical professionals necessary to maintain the health of their populations once they are past the easy and cheap phases at a very young age. In fact, we do the opposite as we recruit these professionals to provide services to us in the developed world since we are not producing them fast enough to meet our demand. This would seem to doom their populations to a life of continued poverty and poor living standards now matter what our other policies may be.

If the developing world wants to be judged on per capita emissions…or per capita anything, it should be made clear to them that we are going to end any and all programs which actively contribute to their increasing capita.