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.
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