Continued Population Growth Leading To An Uncertain Future
March 17 2008 / by Venessa Posavec
Category: Environment Year: Beyond Rating: 6
A trends report on world
population growth was recently released by the Worldwatch
Institute, indicating that insufficient global demographic
information 
is making even the best guesses for future population
unreliable.
The most common projection cited by demographers is that population will peak around 9 billion people by 2050. Unfortunately, we don’t have accurate information about how many people are even alive today, let alone regional fertility rates, to know if our estimates may be too conservative.
The growing number of women entering childbearing age, along with increased lifespans due to access to healthcare could result in a world population that is unsustainable.
One of the most urgent global issues is the availability of clean drinking water. The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization stated that two-thirds of the world population could face water shortages as soon as 2025. How quickly will this problem spiral out of control when there are billions more mouths to feed?
What actions can be taken today to curb population growth in accordance with ecological sustainability? It may simply be out of our hands before we know it, and million (or billions) of people will have to die of starvation in order to restore balance. Some are leaving the solution to the magic bullet of ‘technology’, but what if they’re wrong? What if we don’t create a green world, with renewable energies and efficient housing to accommodate the swell? In such a future, remembering our fight for oil will be laughable when we’re at war for a glass of water.
Comment Thread (1 Response)
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Hopefully curbing 1) carbon emissions by quickly shifting to locally generated solar or other efficient power generation, 2) a shift to more efficient power storage, probably hydrogen, and 3) affordable clean-water through local purification or desalination, will do the trick. Of course, every global economic or security setback will increase the likelihood of the bleaker future scenarios, so my guess is that it’ll come down to obstacles vs. the positive powers of exponential tech, info, and intelligence.
Posted by: Alvis Brigis March 17, 2008
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