What makes the largest influence to civilization’s impact on the environment? How can we better understand the relationships between our population, resources, and environmental influences? These could have been some questions Paul R. Ehrlich (an American entomologist) and John P. Holdren (a physicist) could have had before they came up with the IPAT model in the early 1970’s. The IPAT equation, sometimes called the “Master Equation”, can be written out as I = P x A x T. The “I” in the equation stands for the impact we have on our environment, and is the product of several factors. These factors include the “ P ” our population, the A “ affluence ”, and the “ T ” the influence of technology.
In the IPAT equation, the “P” stands for our population. In the early 1970’s, the world population was approximately 3.7 billion; right now there are around 7.7 billion people in the world according to Max Roser and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina (2018). That is a significant increase compared to the 2 billion-population increase from 1920- 1970. The population is a significant aspect in the IPAT model. The larger the population, the greater the need is for resources such as water, food, energy and fuel, etc. This results in lower amounts of resources available, which makes a huge influence on our environmental impact. In conclusion, the higher the population, the higher the environmental impact.
Secondly, in the IPAT equation, the “ A ” stands for affluence. Affluence in this model is not meaning its standard definition “an abundance of wealth or property” (Merriam-Webster). We use the “ A ” (affluence), to represent the average consumption rate of individuals in the population. To determine our affluence we can take the GDP, or Gross Domestic Product, of our population. The same way as the population influences our environmental impact, as our individual consumption increases, our impact increases along with it. While many would believe our population has a larger influence on our environmental impact, it is our production/consumption that makes a bigger impact.
Lastly, the “ T “ in Ehrlich and Holdren’s IPAT equation stands for technology. Technology can both increase as well as decrease our impact on the environment. It can improve our ability to exploit fossil fuels (petroleum, coal, natural gas), minerals, and primary forests. Our advances in technology have led to a substantial increase in both population and affluence, which causes an enlarged influence to our impact. Because of our developments in technology we now have a larger population because people are now living longer, and we have higher birth rates. Without technology and the resources it produces, it would be impossible to support our large population.
Now that we have a better understanding about the IPAT equation and what it is used to calculate, we can compare it to current events happening globally. To create global environmental change, it takes a lot of time and research. To make global change, it can take many years, even decades. You need to think, and research about not only the present, but also on how what you do now can impact the future. Big global challenges can include climate changes, diseases and outbreaks, and even financial crises. Dealing with these issues we have created vaccines, jobs, and technology to try and reduce fossil fuels, etc.
As individuals it seems as if just one person could not make that big of a change, but there are many things we can do locally. Investing in new infrastructure can help decrease green house emissions and can help build economic growth. “Buildings worldwide contribute around one third of all greenhouse gas emissions (43 percent in the U.S. alone), even though investing in thicker insulation and other cost-effective, temperature-regulating steps can save money in the long run.” (Davis Biello 2007) Another way we can help is by our transportation. Transportation is one of the top leading sources of green house releases in the United States. To help with this problem you can change your way of transportation. You can try walking or riding your bike, you can use public transportation, or you could move closer to your job or work from home. We can also try to consume fewer goods, try to buy fewer materials, and to think smarter while shopping. All of these small changes to our lifestyles can make a huge impact. If large amounts of people picked up on these changes, then we could all create a big impact. The “do-it-yourself” vaccine also known as the “hand washing vaccine” is a great example of this. The more people who contribute, the more changes we can make to benefit us financially, environmentally, and to our health.
Paul R. Ehrlich and John P. Holdren created a simple equation to show how three factors could affect our environmental impact. The IPAT equation has taught us how important each factors individually are, and how they all affect one another. So while our population is growing, our technology is developing, and our consumption is going up, we at the same time run the possibility of harshly impacting our natural resources for the future to come