Algunas consideraciones sobre la influencia de la heterogeneidad demográfica en el consumo y la calidad del medio ambiente

A frequently argumentation resorted to when studying the interrelation between population and environment links the accelerated demographic growth, especially in developing countries, to planetary environmental deterioration without much detail about the demographic, social, economic and cultural heterogeneity of the population. Consequently, a fundamental intervention to protect the global environment would be to reinforce family planning programs in poor countries, without facing other equally important aspects that affect the environmental quality. In the present article the importance that demographic diversity can have upon the quality of the environment, through the diversity of economically, socially, politically and culturally determined consumption patterns. By revising some theoretical and methodological proposals for the general study of population and its interrelation with the environment in particular, it is suggested paying close attention to influence from factors, such as the spatial distribution of population, its age and sex structure, its organization in households, the family vital cycle, as well as their economic differentiation, can have on the environmental quality both at local and global level, as they influence the mechanisms to access, use and control natural resources, and consequently, on the diversity of consumption patterns of the population.