Homage to Garrett Hardin: Nobody Ever Died of Global Climate Change

TR Number

Date

2008

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Virginia Tech

Abstract

In 1971, Garrett Hardin published an editorial entitled _Nobody Ever Dies of Overpopulation based on the cyclone that struck East Bengal and killed an estimated 500,000 people. Overcrowding forced people to live in a dangerous place like the Gangetic Delta which is barely above sea level. Now, 37 years later, a similar situation is unfolding in the Ganges River Delta in Bangladesh. This delta is also barely above sea level, and the water keeps rising due to global warming. If a large storm were to create hurricanes in this area housing and agricultural areas would be destroyed as well as power lines and water supply which would interfere with food deliveries and medical assistance. In a worst case scenario environmental refugees could reach 25 million and the death toll could be in the millions. If global climate change was one of the antecedent causes to this worst case scenario, would seal level rise and sever weather truly be the cause of deaths?

Description

Keywords

climate change, global warming, ecological overshoot, over population, Garrett Hardin

Citation