ELEVEN BILLION BY 2050
“The problems are tremendously severe. We have a crisis of global proportions.”

The environmental outlook for our planet is bleak if we cannot control mushrooming birthrates, according to the United Nation's State of the World Population 2001 report. The report predicts that world population could grow from 6.1 billion to as many as 11 billion people by mid-century, unless dramatic gains are made in women's education, health care, and access to family planning. Most of the projected growth will occur in developing nations, creating widespread poverty and environmental degradation.

The report takes the developed world to task for failing to adequately bankroll measures designed to curb world population growth, and cautions that humanity is on a “collision course” with the environment. The United States, Japan and Germany all are failing to assume their leadership roles.

Increasing population and consumption will continue to alter the planet on an “unprecedented scale,” degrading soil, polluting air and water, melting ice caps and destroying natural habits, the report said.

“We are looking over a cliff here. We are reaching the limits of some clearly definable resources, ‘ stated report editor Alex Marshall, referring specifically to water, energy and food. “More people are using more resources with more intensity than at any point in human history.”

The world's 49 least-developed countries—already the most severely challenged by soil and water degradation and food shortages—will nearly triple in population, from 668 million to 1.86 billion, the report said. As incomes rise in these countries, consumption will grow, placing yet more strain on the earth's resources, it predicted.

“Population growth, increasing affluence—with rising consumption, pollution and waste—and persistent poverty ... are putting increasing pressure on the environment.”

To feed the nearly 8 billion people expected by 2025 and improve their diets, the world will have to double food production and improve distribution—without relying on the fertilizers and pesticides which further destroy the ecological balance.

“The problems are tremendously severe. We have a crisis of global proportions.”

The entire report is on the United Nations Population Fund website: http://www.unfpa.org/