UN’s world population estimates raise questions on sustainability
Thanks to Joe Bish for this article. At http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/301443 you can hear an interview with Hania Zlotnik, head of the UN Population Division, regarding recent population projections out as far as 2300. You can download the Population Division’s recent report showing assumptions behind various projections via a link in the article below.
UN’s world population estimates raise questions on sustainability
Dec 14, 2010 by ■ Michael Krebs
With population estimates from the United Nations ranging anywhere from 8 billion to 10.5 billion by 2050, there is a need to understand the numbers and the implications of population growth or decline.
As human population figures worldwide are continuing to reflect widespread growth, the United Nations recently released a 240-page report that examines and projects trends over a wide period of time from 1950 to 2300. By 2050, according the UN Population Division analysis, there could be anywhere from 8 billion of us at the low end of the projection to 10.5 billion at the high end.
The impact of these figures on ecological sustainability is not known.
The United Nations has been assessing global populations since the 1950s. As the world settled into a relative postwar tranquility, populations began to expand – and this expansion prompted the UN to begin implementing family planning measures where appropriate.
“The United Nations has a very long history of leading the discussion of population issues at the world level,” UN Population Division Director Hania Zlotnik said. “It started in the 50′s. It culminated in the 70′s with the first intergovernmental conference on population – the 1974 World Population Conference – where governments got together and for the first time they legitimized at the universal level the fact that governments could make policies regarding population and specifically that they had a responsibility to enable couples and individuals to have the number of children they desired – specifically by the rise in family planning programs. And it’s that movement of family planning that has had a major impact on world population trends.”
Read the full article here: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/301443#ixzz1BD7KmqBs
March 1st, 2011 at 9:54 am
I live in an area that what was until a few decades ago, a collection of small towns and villages separated by agricultural land and the odd patches of woodland and marshes. Fly over that area in a light aircraft today and one can see how this has changed into almost one large interconnected swathe of urbanization stretching along the coast from Chichester in the West to Brighton in the East. Within the circumference of a mile from where I live 2000 new homes have appeared in just 5 years with a whole lot more on the way. The majority of residents take this stoically in their stride and put up with the increasing level of gridlocks on the road, the unpleasantness of having to stand for an hour on overcrowded commuter trains from London and having to share resources like medical facilities with increasing numbers of people. They will quietly whinge down at the pub over how they cannot get their child in to a local school or that there are no jobs to be had when the kids leave school or University. Years of social engineering prevents them from joining the dots and seeing the connection between rapid population rise brought about by unrestricted immigration and the influx of people into their already crowded county. Should they dare to join the dots and vocalise their fears they will find themselves stigmatised as Right Wing racists who lack sympathy for the disadvantaged. The collective governments of the UK, EU and the USA along with organisations like the UN may have been collecting and disseminating little bits of information about population but their main thrust has been to indoctrinate the masses into accepting and even welcoming overpopulation and its effects. It would be wonderful to see the UN and the rest truly become part of the solution rather than a big chunk of the problem. Personally I cannot hold my breath that long.