Of People & Populations

All the world’s a stage – but how many people are there, really, in the world? And how many more will be coming in the next few years? This section takes a look at the people who fill up the world, where they are, and where we all might be in the next few decades. Did you know that ...? Our world population is growing fast…and we mean really, really FAST? There will be 8.3 billion people in the world by 2025, and around 10-11 billion toward the end of the 21st  century. That means we have billions of stomachs to fill, and that means massive changes in the production, distribution, and stability of food products. (Source: Norman Borlaug, in a speech given at Tuskegee University, 2001) We’ll be nudging each other for elbow space soon? Experts estimate that Asia’s population will increase dramatically to a mind-blowing 1.1 billion. Sub-Saharan Africa will be filled with 80% more people by the year 2020. With everyone flocking to cities, close to 50% of the developing world’s population is now living in urban areas - a far cry from the 30% of less than a decade ago. (Source: Mike Davis, “A Planet of Slums,” 2004) 32 1
By 2025, India will be the most densely populated country in the world? The country is projected to house 1.5 billion people, with grossly swollen cities. That means almost 1/5 of the planet will be living in the Indian peninsula! (Source:  http://www.gmi.org) And that goes for the rest of the world as well? Three (3) people are born every second, and 1.33 die at the same time. This results in a net 2.67 increase in population. In fact, the number of people alive on earth at this very moment is higher than the total number of all the people that have ever died. Did you know that the number of cars on the planet is increasing three times faster than the people - and if you put all the world’s ants together and weigh them, they would still be heavier than the total weight of the world’s population? (Source:  http://www.corsinet.com/trivia/g-triv.html) Not only will we need more crops in the future, but we won’t have more land for planting? Methods in traditional agriculture can still yield good results, but could feed the increased population predicted for the year 2050 only if we have a 3-fold increase in cropland - an impossible feat. (Source: Anthony Trevawas, “The Population/ Biodiversity Paradox. Agricultural Efficiency to Save Wilderness,” Plant Physiology, 2001