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They Say: World Population Will Grow to 7 BILLION
7 Billion People. Yes, our humble earth is projected to be home to seven billion human beings. From Adam and Eve to this? Wowza.
A report released on Wednesday made the prediction that the world’s population would reach to that staggering number. Although everyone thinks that there’s a baby boom in their hood, the vast majority of the of the growth is in developing and some of the poorest nations. Via CNN, The Population Reference Bureau’s 2009 World Population Data Sheet is reporting that the bulk of the births are estimated to come from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
And the US and Canada ain’t slacking. We will be responsible for most of the growth in developed countries. Half of the numbers come from births and half from immigration.
High fertility, of course, plays a big factor in the growth. In Africa for example a woman often has six or seven kids, whereas in the US the average is two and just 1.5 in Canada. CNN played with the numbers and found that Uganda currently has about 34 million people and Canada has 31 million. In about forty years Canada is projected to have 42 million people but Uganda is estimated to soar to 96 million. And in forty years the country with the most people? India. Taking over the spot held by China, which drops to the number two slot. Number three? The good old U.S. of A..
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Lucy commented on Aug 12 09 at 4:19 pmWow, now that is a lot of people. I wonder if because of this, governments will start forcing population control in the next hundred years?
Lucy
Paul Nink commented on Aug 12 09 at 6:07 pmWhy don’t people who whine about global warming start compalining about overpopulation?
More people = More resources consumed
Steve Reeves commented on Aug 12 09 at 7:53 pmComments You mean those global warming whiners like Al Gore (4 kids), Arnold Schwartznegger (4 kids) and Nancy Pelosi (5 kids)? It seems that reducing our carbon footprint is for other people to do, not these 3.
Ann Safron commented on Aug 12 09 at 10:01 pmRegarding the population on planet Earth, either we adjust to a larger population or realize that people are going to die due to lack of resources. Scientists are searching for other planets similar to Earth, so that may be the future for excess population. People can also immigrate to the Moon or Mars, if the proper facilities were set up. One would have to be willing to leave the home planet and immigrate to another world rather than country.
Kai commented on Aug 12 09 at 10:28 pmUm….how bout if poor families stop having ten children? It seems that the poorest nations breed like rabbits, and get poorer for it.
Scott commented on Aug 12 09 at 11:34 pmThis is one of those sensitive topics that people in power avoid because religions/cultures often promote large families. However, it’s hard to tell poor countries there isn’t enough food when they see how big Americans are. Unfortunately, we often only seem to change when the situation becomes very dire and denial is no longer possible – consider the people who deny global warming!
John commented on Aug 13 09 at 12:25 amAdam and Eve, really? Once we get beyond religion we can begin to focus on the rest of the world’s problems
Dave commented on Aug 13 09 at 12:00 pmEven at this number, the earth has more than enough for needs, and not nearly enough for our greed. Starvation is a purely man made disaster.
John commented on Aug 13 09 at 12:26 pmAnd what is the USA and Europe (as well as Russia) going to do when these 3rd world, unemployable, illiterate people start moving in ever more numbers to those lands? Also, this population boom would not be occurring if the USA and Europe would just stop sending food and medicine to these nations, who cannot control there breeding practices. For God’s sake, if you live in the desert, have no employment, etc., you should not be having ANY children. We are just causing the problem of war, starvation, and destruction of natural resources (as well as many animal species) to continue and just get worse. Those with the least ability are breeding the world into chaos.
Nick commented on Aug 13 09 at 12:54 pmI don’t mean to sound so misanthropic, but maybe what we need are a few more 1918-like flu pandemics to keep things in check. No species is meant to keep reproducing indefinitely and we, even those of us in developed countries who have 3-4 kids that we can afford, are consuming resources to do so. If we can’t count on nature to control things, than we must. I think a one-child policy for everyone – not just developing countries, would be a good place to start. This can be achieved with a steep child tax for registering each 2nd and 3rd birth and the proceeds could be used to provide health care and offset the costs to the planet.
Heartland Patriot commented on Aug 13 09 at 2:44 pmWow, old Malthus has you folks wrapped around his little dead finger…why don’t you get those THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES to stop having so many kids, or just as well, maybe YOU could line yourselves up, and jump off the cliff FIRST, to save resources…oh, yeah, that’s right you are all the ELITES who have to “guide” the rest of us to an ecological utopia, right?…my bad…but while you are at it, look at where most Americans live, the vast majority are in about 10 large metropolitan areas, such as NYC, LA, San Fran Bay, Houston, Chicago, etc…and another couple of dozen lesser metro areas…the USA has a LOT of empty land…and a LOT of resources…so, really, the Greenies just want ME and MINE to give up what we have, what our parents and grandparents (of ALL races) worked to build up, so that the Third World can hold more people, while YOU live wonderful, “GREEN” lives…all I can say is “Get Bent!” (BTW, ask the Romans what happens when your civilization loses its pride and drive…)
Jeff Goldstein commented on Aug 13 09 at 9:16 pmIt is hard to fathom what 7 billion people means. How much does the world population increase in a day? A week? A month? A year?
Read this, it will just blow you away. It is posed as a ‘challenge’ but the solution is posted at the bottom:
http://blogontheuniverse.org/2009/06/02/weekly-challenge-2-people-people-everywhere/
Then think of the resources that need to be made available to provide basic needs.
Jeff Goldstein
Center Director
National Center for Earth and Space Science Education
dj commented on Aug 14 09 at 8:29 amNice thought experiment Jeff. Now try this one: you could fit all of the projected 7 billion people into the state of Texas with the approximate population density of New York City. New York is hardly a place where people are going insane and starving from overpopulation, in fact people aspire to move there. This would leave the entire rest of the earth for support of the population. Starvation and other disasters that befall humans are purely of a political nature, not a natural one. Paul Erlich predicted that most of us would be dead a couple of decades ago. Many would be tempted (as have some here) to wish for wars or famine to greatly reduce the population. Always the undesirable unwashed, never the proposers of course. Those who identify as Christians (a majority according to polls) need to find out what that _truly_ means. It doesn’t mean Draconian elimination of those “other people”.
Jeff Goldstein commented on Aug 16 09 at 11:04 amdj-glad you liked it. RE yours, we don’t live in the world you described. We live in the messy real world, with the realities of geopolitics, environmental impact, economics – we’re dealing with people. The bottom line is that the population is going to dramatically increase, and we will be very hard-pressed to support all these new people with existing infrastructures. Why don’t we take your analogy to the next logical level? All of humanity can fit in a volume of space the size of the National Mall in DC filled to the top of the Washington Monument. Or, since you used NY, all of humanity fits in Central Park to the top of the Flatiron Building. We are not talking about a great deal of biomass, so what’s the problem? The problem is how we are using our technology to support that biomass.
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