Here is a story from AP via the Globe about the UN population estimate for 2050: 9 billion people and mostly in the developing world. Just imagine the earth’s population almost doubling over 45 years, that’s an incredible increase compared to what we have recorded to now. What will the implications be for nature of this population growth? How can technology assist with dealing with population growth?
Today the word’s population is roughly 6.5 Billion. A population of 9 Billion in 45 years is an increase of 3.5 Billion. 3.5 / 6.5 = 53% and increase of 1/2.
From 1950 -> 1990 the world’s population roughly doubled.
The projected 2050 population is rougly double the world population in 1980 not today.
I wonder how long it will take for developing countries to stabilize their birth rates. They
said India will surpass China in numbers. I’m just worried because as these countries
develop, they’ll also adopt new technologies which means more consumption and more waste.
It’s also a difficult situation, when and when not to interfere? Should we leave these
countries to develop on their own, or should we be implementing policies that will help the
country in the long run? Like China’s one-child policy, for example…
I wonder if the actual number of people on the Earth is even what matters right now. Or is it the way we are living that makes the idea of population growth such a bad one? If we lived more sustainably and less selfishly or greedily then maybe the Earth could stand at least a few million people? This is just an idea, if it is tru though, then what would the treshold number be for Earth-crashing even if everyone was living perfectly sustainably? OR does the word sustainable in itself imply that the population is not going over its max??