By saying that "India will surpass China in demographic dividend," the Western thought has turned population problems of developing countries to "demographic dividend." This paper briefly reviews some Western studies that leads to the Western thought on the relationship between population and economy.It concludes that similar studies by Chinese scholars,which reach a conclusion that demographic dividend contributed 27% China’s economic growth,have serious flaws.While "getting old before getting rich" may be one of the characteristics of population aging in China,many unique factors make the aging effects in China much weaker than that in the West.Aging in the West has been so far accompanied by increasing unemployment problem,and whether transitional China with 200 million surplus labors will face similar problem should have caught more attention.Currently,the lagged effects of population growth of China have entered its fully demonstrated period.If China’s population policy changes to encourage population growth,it will be a big mistake.

由于各国经济利益不一致,气候变化谈判博弈艰难。在这种形势下,人口控制对减少温室气体排放的意义,近来被国际社会部分人士及中国政府重新提及,值得关注。自1972年世界环境大会以来,发达国家对世界人口问题的看法发生过180度的转变,否认发展中国家人口快速增长对经济的不利作用,否认人口与环境问题相关的观点,渐成西方学术界主流,由学术界蔓延到西方政府,并深刻影响着发展中国家许多学者的认识。文章论述了人口规模对温室气体排放的影响,试分析了上述西方主流观点在研究方法上存在的问题。目前,中国正进入快速工业化阶段,对庞大人口不断放大的经济、资源、环境影响,本文认为必须有极为清醒的认识。