On October 31, the world's population is officially scheduled to hit seven billion
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PARIS: Already straining to host seven billion souls, Earth is set to teem with billions more, and only a revolution in the use of resources can avert an environmental crunch, experts say.
As early as 1798, Thomas Malthus gloomily forecast that our ability to reproduce would quickly outstrip our ability to produce food, leading to mass starvation and a culling of the species.
But an industrial revolution and its impact on agriculture proved Malthus and later doomsayers wrong, even as our numbers doubled and redoubled with accelerating frequency.
"Despite alarmist predictions, historical increases in population have not been economically catastrophic," notes David Bloom, a professor in the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard.
What happens next?
Today, though, it seems reasonable to ask if Malthus wasn't simply a couple of centuries ahead of the curve. On October 31, the world's population is officially scheduled to hit seven billion - a rise of two billion in less than a quarter century.
Over six decades, the global fertility rate has roughly halved, and amounts to a statistical 2.5 children per woman today.
But this varies greatly from country to country. And whether the planet's population eventually stabilises at nine, 10 or 15 billion depends on what happens in developing countries, mostly in Africa, with the fastest growth.
Diminishing resources
As our species has expanded, so has its devouring of the planet's bounty, from fresh water and soil richness to forests and fisheries.
At its current pace, humankind will need, by 2030, a second planet to satisfy its appetites and absorb its waste, the Global Footprint Network (GFN) calculated last month.
And through the coal, oil and gas that drive prosperity, we are also emitting greenhouse gases that alter the climate, potentially maiming the ecosystems which feed us.
"From soaring food prices to the crippling effects of climate change, our economies are now confronting the reality of years of spending beyond our means," GFN's president, Mathis Wackernagel, said.
Smarter fresh water
French diplomat Brice Lalonde, one of two coordinators for next June's U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development, dubbed "Rio+20," said Earth's population rise poses a fundamental challenge to how we use resources. "In 2030 there will be at least another billion people on the planet," Lalonde said.
"The question is, how do we boost food security and provide essential services to the billion poorest people but without using more water, land or energy?"
This is why, he said, Rio+20 will focus on practical things such as increasing cleaner sources in the world energy mix, smarter use of fresh water, building cities that are environmentally friendlier and raising farm yields without dousing the soil with chemicals.
my god........700 crores
my god........700 crores unbelievable...and i may touch 1000 crores in few years of time.....the world is going to be destroyed within 100 years i think and to overcome this problem the each country should bring a law that there should be only one child from a family.....this should be followed by all country especially india and china...and pollution should be brought under control to save earth for our future generations.....please save our earth.......
One child policy not the solution.
One child policy has been tried and failed miserably. As with many dilemmas the key is first recognising that a problem exists. Acceptance and education I believe will yield the solution.