World Lacks Enough Food, Fuel as Population Soars

Thanks to Steve Kurtz for alerting PMC to this January 30th article in Scientific American. Similar coverage was seen from Reuters and the Australian Broadcasting Company. All are reporting on the release of a report authored by the United Nations Secretary-General’s High Level Panel on Global Sustainability. The full report is here (.pdf). The article is found here:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=world-lacks-enough-food-fuel-as-pop

World Lacks Enough Food, Fuel as Population Soars

The world is running out of time to make sure there is enough food, water and energy to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population and to avoid sending up to 3 billion people into poverty, a U.N.

By Nina Chestney

LONDON (Reuters) – The world is running out of time to make sure there is enough food, water and energy to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population and to avoid sending up to 3 billion people into poverty, a U.N. report warned on Monday.

As the world’s population looks set to grow to nearly 9 billion by 2040 from 7 billion now, and the number of middle-class consumers increases by 3 billion over the next 20 years, the demand for resources will rise exponentially.

Even by 2030, the world will need at least 50 percent more food, 45 percent more energy and 30 percent more water, according to U.N. estimates, at a time when a changing environment is creating new limits to supply.

And if the world fails to tackle these problems, it risks condemning up to 3 billion people into poverty, the report said.

To read the full article, please click here: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=world-lacks-enough-food-fuel-as-pop