So, the world continues marching towards the precipice with no solution (2020 a make-or-break year after failure of Madrid climate talks, Dec 17).

The pied pipers, notably big businesses and governments of rich countries, may in public say they will cut down carbon emission, but in private do the opposite.

Some even dismiss global warming as a hoax, like US President Donald Trump and many Republicans, despite the overwhelming evidence pointing to it and its eventual destruction of human life.

More people here are paying attention to the impact of climate change (4 in 5 here ready to bear extra costs to protect planet: Poll, Dec 17)

So, why are world leaders dragging their feet?

The reason is vested interests.

To push back global warming, we have to drastically scale down our use of cars, cut to size our huge petrochemical industries at Tuas, give up building Changi Airport's Terminal 5, stop trying to be a top shipping port and give up the use of air-conditioning.

In other words, give up our current way of life. Is it even realistic?

The root cause of global warming is the huge human population explosion.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the human population crossed the one-billion mark. Since then it has grown exponentially - to 6.9 billion in 2010 - and is expected to cross nine billion by 2045.

The resulting growing economy produces greenhouse gases that cause global warming.

So, the solution is really simple: Reduce population growth.

Next year, Singapore's Government has to report what it has done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to all other signatories of the Paris Accord as part of the agreed five-yearly audit.

In addition to its plan for $100 billion to be spent over decades to protect Singapore from rising sea levels and the building of a sea wall, perhaps the Government can review and scrap the 6.9 million population figure by 2030 that has been raised by the authorities for policy-planning purposes.

Foong Swee Fong