Environment getting worse
About 3 million die from pollution each year.
In the past decade in every environmental sector, conditions have either failed to improve, or they are worsening, and it is of particular relevance that the population growth is considered to be a rather remarkable factor.
Public health.
Research shows that unclean water, along with poor sanitation, kills over 12 million people each year, most in developing countries Whilst air pollution kills nearly 3 million more. Heavy metals and other contaminants also cause widespread health problems.
Food supply:
Will there be enough food to go around? In 64 of 105 developing countries studied by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the population has been growing faster than food supplies. Population pressures have degraded some 2 billion hectares of arable land — an area the size of Canada and the U.S.
Freshwater:
The supply of freshwater is finite, but demand is soaring as population grows and use per capita rises. By 2025, when world population is projected to be 8 billion, 48 countries containing 3 billion people will face shortages.
Forests:
Nearly half of the world’s original forest cover has been lost, and each year another 16 million hectares are cut, bulldozed, or burned. Forests provide over US$400 billion to the world economy annually and are vital to maintaining healthy ecosystems. Yet, current demand for forest products may exceed the limit of sustainable consumption by 25%.
Taking action:
Many steps toward sustainability can be taken today. These include: using energy more efficiently, managing cities better, phasing out subsidies that encourage waste, [etc.]
The world must sustain 1 billion more people every 13 years.
Stabilizing population:
While population growth has slowed, the absolute number of people continues to increase — by about 1 billion every 13 years. Slowing population growth would help improve living standards and would buy time to protect natural resources. In the long run, to sustain higher living standards, world population size must stabilize.
As population growth slows, countries can invest more in education, health care, job creation, and other improvements that help boost living standards. In turn, as individual income, savings, and investment rise, more resources become available that can boost productivity. This dynamic process has been identified as one of the key reasons that the economies of many Asian countries grew rapidly between 1960 and 1990.5
A dynamic economy also needs slower population growth.
In recent years fertility has been falling in many developing countries and, as a result, annual world population growth has fallen to about 1.4% in 2000 compared with about 2% in 1960. The UN estimated recently that population is growing by about 78 million per year, down from about 90 million estimated early in the 1990s.10 Still, at the current pace world population increases by about 1 billion every 13 years. World population surpassed 6 billion in 1999 and is projected to rise to over 8 billion by 2025.
If every country made a commitment to population stabilization and resource conservation, the world would be better able to meet the challenges of sustainable development. Practising sustainable development requires a combination of wise public investment, effective natural resource management, cleaner agricultural and industrial technologies, less pollution, and slower population growth.
(The Kyoto Protocol (1997) commits industrialised countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. It suffered a huge set back in 2001 when the USA, responsible for a quarter of global emissions, pulled out.)
Conclusion: We risk destroying our standard of living if we don’t control population growth.
Worries about a “population bomb” may have lessened as fertility rates have fallen, but the world’s population is projected to continue expanding until the middle of the century.
Just when it stabilizes and thus the level at which it stabilizes will have a powerful effect on living standards and the global environment.
As population size continues to reach levels never before experienced, and per capita consumption rises, the environment hangs in the balance.
About 3 million die from pollution each year.
In the past decade in every environmental sector, conditions have either failed to improve, or they are worsening, and it is of particular relevance that the population growth is considered to be a rather remarkable factor.
Public health.
Research shows that unclean water, along with poor sanitation, kills over 12 million people each year, most in developing countries Whilst air pollution kills nearly 3 million more. Heavy metals and other contaminants also cause widespread health problems.
Food supply:
Will there be enough food to go around? In 64 of 105 developing countries studied by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the population has been growing faster than food supplies. Population pressures have degraded some 2 billion hectares of arable land — an area the size of Canada and the U.S.
Freshwater:
The supply of freshwater is finite, but demand is soaring as population grows and use per capita rises. By 2025, when world population is projected to be 8 billion, 48 countries containing 3 billion people will face shortages.
Forests:
Nearly half of the world’s original forest cover has been lost, and each year another 16 million hectares are cut, bulldozed, or burned. Forests provide over US$400 billion to the world economy annually and are vital to maintaining healthy ecosystems. Yet, current demand for forest products may exceed the limit of sustainable consumption by 25%.
Taking action:
Many steps toward sustainability can be taken today. These include: using energy more efficiently, managing cities better, phasing out subsidies that encourage waste, [etc.]
The world must sustain 1 billion more people every 13 years.
Stabilizing population:
While population growth has slowed, the absolute number of people continues to increase — by about 1 billion every 13 years. Slowing population growth would help improve living standards and would buy time to protect natural resources. In the long run, to sustain higher living standards, world population size must stabilize.
As population growth slows, countries can invest more in education, health care, job creation, and other improvements that help boost living standards. In turn, as individual income, savings, and investment rise, more resources become available that can boost productivity. This dynamic process has been identified as one of the key reasons that the economies of many Asian countries grew rapidly between 1960 and 1990.5
A dynamic economy also needs slower population growth.
In recent years fertility has been falling in many developing countries and, as a result, annual world population growth has fallen to about 1.4% in 2000 compared with about 2% in 1960. The UN estimated recently that population is growing by about 78 million per year, down from about 90 million estimated early in the 1990s.10 Still, at the current pace world population increases by about 1 billion every 13 years. World population surpassed 6 billion in 1999 and is projected to rise to over 8 billion by 2025.
If every country made a commitment to population stabilization and resource conservation, the world would be better able to meet the challenges of sustainable development. Practising sustainable development requires a combination of wise public investment, effective natural resource management, cleaner agricultural and industrial technologies, less pollution, and slower population growth.
(The Kyoto Protocol (1997) commits industrialised countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. It suffered a huge set back in 2001 when the USA, responsible for a quarter of global emissions, pulled out.)
Conclusion: We risk destroying our standard of living if we don’t control population growth.
Worries about a “population bomb” may have lessened as fertility rates have fallen, but the world’s population is projected to continue expanding until the middle of the century.
Just when it stabilizes and thus the level at which it stabilizes will have a powerful effect on living standards and the global environment.
As population size continues to reach levels never before experienced, and per capita consumption rises, the environment hangs in the balance.