Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics 223, 2065–2085 (2014)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2014-02250-7

Review

Human population and atmospheric carbon dioxide growth dynamics: Diagnostics for the future

Department of Management, Technology and Economics, ETH Zurich, Scheuchzerstrasse 7, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
Swiss Finance Institute c/o University of Geneva, 40 Blvd. du Pont d'Arve, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland

^a e-mail: andreas.huesler@live.com
^b e-mail: dsornette@ethz.ch

Received: 22 April 2014
Revised: 18 August 2014
Published online: 24 October 2014

Abstract

We analyze the growth rates of human population and of atmospheric carbon dioxide by comparing the relative merits of two benchmark models, the exponential law and the finite-time-singular (FTS) power law. The later results from positive feedbacks, either direct or mediated by other dynamical variables, as shown in our presentation of a simple endogenous macroeconomic dynamical growth model describing the growth dynamics of coupled processes involving human population (labor in economic terms), capital and technology (proxies by CO₂ emissions). Human population in the context of our energy intensive economies constitutes arguably the most important underlying driving variable of the content of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Using some of the best databases available, we perform empirical analyses confirming that the human population on Earth has been growing super-exponentially until the mid-1960s, followed by a decelerated sub-exponential growth, with a tendency to plateau at just an exponential growth in the last decade with an average growth rate of 1.0% per year. In contrast, we find that the content of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has continued to accelerate super-exponentially until 1990, with a transition to a progressive deceleration since then, with an average growth rate of approximately 2% per year in the last decade. To go back to CO₂ atmosphere contents equal to or smaller than the level of 1990 as has been the broadly advertised goals of international treaties since 1990 requires herculean changes: from a dynamical point of view, the approximately exponential growth must not only turn to negative acceleration but also negative velocity to reverse the trend.